Call me Magic
by Amethystfairy1
Summary: Rome has called upon Lukas to perform an important mission, the newest student of the academy is under suspicion of being a spy. With a dangerous threat to the whole school looming, at the center is seemly innocent Valentin Popescu. This time, with all the operatives struggling with their own demons, a single mistake could cost the entire academy it's secret, and a Nordic his life.
1. Scout out the new guy

**_IMPORTANT!_**

 ** _This is a sequel story! If you have not read the first three of this series, 'Call us Hetalia' 'Call me unnoticed' and 'Call us Small' this will make zero sense to you, zip, zilch, nada, so please check out the other three of the 'Call us' series, the first of which is 'Call us Hetalia' thank you!_**

* * *

 ** _Ah, the always convenient 'Alfred insulting Hello Kitty' gag. Never lets me down to get a story rolling..._**

* * *

 ** _Hetalia Academy_**

Lukas sighed, crossing his arms as he paced down the hall.

A moment of peace in Hetalia Academy was hard to come by, and with a person like Lukas, who wasn't very much for the constant noise and chatter of the mess or the dojo or the arena, pacing the halls towards the farthest end of the castle like school was the most quiet he could get.

He jumped when he heard someone scream his name.

"LUKAS SAVE ME!"

He spun on his heel, pale blonde hair whipping and odd violet eyes wide to see Alfred come barreling down the hall.

"Whats wrong?" Lukas demanded, keeping his voice down, it hadn't even been two weeks since the incident with the orchestra and the micro nations initiation, which he'd been forced to attend, what other chaotic terror could plague his school now?

"Lukas hide me!" Alfred begged, diving behind the Nordic.

"From who or what are we hiding?" Lukas asked, easily hiding any panic he felt as he spun again to face the american.

"ALFRED!"

A voice roared.

Lukas shook his head in a disappointed way, crossing his arms again when Yao tackled Alfred to the ground from down the hall, Alfred squirmed free and ran away.

"What happened?" Lukas asked.

"He threw one of my Hello Kitty's out a window with a trash bag parachute!" Yao screamed.

Lukas didn't bother to question what reason Alfred would have for turning a hello kitty into a paratrooper toy, and he didn't have the chance to either, because Yao had already taken off after Alfred, his fury renewed with twice the vigor.

Lukas turned and wandered out into the courtyard.

"I wonder what's next around here..." He murmured.

"Lukas T. Bondevik report to Headmaster's office immediately. Lukas T. Bondevik report to Headmaster's office immediately."

Lukas felt his stomach drop.

 _Not the Nordic 5? Just me?_

The blonde thought, confused. Nevertheless, he stood and began making his way towards the Headmasters office. He was currently wearing his mission uniform, and was still running reasons for him being called through his head.

He reached the door and knocked.

"Come in." Was the reply.

Unconsciously reaching up to make sure his cross shaped white clip, which clashed horribly with the rest of his outfit, was straight, Norway pushed open the door.

"Sir?" Lukas poked his head inside and quickly entered, shutting the door behind him.

Headmaster Rome was alone, sitting in his large high backed chair, Lukas had never realized just how ominous and intimidating he looked until he didn't have three people to his left and one to his right to face him alongside.

"Lukas, please have a seat."

Feeling increasingly uncomfortable, Lukas strode inside and sat down.

He blurted the question.

"Sir, I haven't done anything wrong, have I?" He asked, a very uncharacteristic question though it may be, the Headmaster was not exactly the type to get angry.

"Not at all. Your one of the few students here who never seems to get in trouble. I have a new mission for you."

Still not quite relieved, Lukas spoke again.

"Why not call for the rest of my team, if you've a new mission?" He asked.

Rome smirked.

"Because this one's all yours."

Lukas looked slightly befuddled.

"A solo mission? But sir, why not give it to one of the solo students?"

"Because your the only kid I could pick out that had the highest chance of doing this right. Now listen."

Lukas instantly quelled any other questions he could have asked.

Rome leaned forward and put his elbows on his desk, propping up his chin on his folded fingers.

"Your pretty good at not being seen, but you can still fight and work a computer. I have worry that there's...well theres no easy way to say this...a spy in Hetalia Academy."

"What?" Lukas gasped, his mind instantly flitting through all of the students, faces flashed past, each and every one of which he trusted with his life, unable to believe that any one of them, though how annoying some were, could be moles.

"Not literally inside, at least not yet. You see...we've recently taken a student from Romania, our first from that nation, actually, and, well, I do not trust him yet. But I couldn't leave him, because despite the suspicion I have of him, he's still a good kid that deserves a chance. I want you to keep an eye on him when he arrives, for the time being your suspended from your team activities while you 'help him settle in and learn the ropes' I actually want you to try and make sure he's not an infiltrator for Morgan."

Lukas frowned, "If you think he's an infiltrator for Morgan, why would you let him into the academy in the first place?"

Rome sighed, leaning back in his chair and crossing his arms.

"See...the way things have played out after the Orchestra incident, we've been in a sort of deadlock, Carthage and I. Lukas...he knows where we are, Hetalia Academy is the Ancient Academy with a new name and a new uniform. He knows that as well as you and I. After the Orchestra...well...it was reported someone shot out the lights. The nets the micro nations used were recovered. Who else could have pulled something like this off? The police? Of course not. Morgan knows this is his old school with a new name. No way for us to reverse that."

Lukas felt an instant urge to look over his shoulder, the Academy had always been a safe haven, once within these walls, you could never be hurt.

Until now.

Rome was here to contradict this, though.

"But we've built up in the community. If Carthage were to attack directly, it would do nothing but cause trouble for him. Because the public doesn't know of this secret war raging between us. All they would see is a previously respected city face, Rooke Morgan, attacking an academy full of innocent children for no reason."

"Innocent children? Us?" Lukas asked skeptically.

Rome rolled his eyes.

"Thats what the _public_ thinks. Same goes here. If we attack, it would expose us even more so to the general public. Do you understand?"  
Lukas nodded slowly, made sense to him, a direct attack was a double edged sword for both parties involved.

"As such, I want you to pick up our newest recruit at the airport. Unlike with you and your brother's entry, he was to far way to get to the academy with one hit of knock out gas."

Lukas winced.

"Oh, that was fun." He recalled.

Rome rolled his eyes.

"You didn't get knocked out."

"I know. It certainly was fun to get dragged out my window in the middle of the night. Tossed into the back of a van, and driven off to who knows where."

Rome ignored Lukas's last statement and continued.

"As such, he woke up on the plane here. His situation was explained, and this is where my worry comes. He seemed completely calm, almost as if he was expecting to be taken. This worries me...a lot. So I want you to try and give me a reason to trust him as much as I trust the other students here. Ok?"

Lukas nodded and stood to leave.  
"Yes sir."

 _Scope out the new guy, sounds simple enough._

* * *

 ** _Amethyst: You know, I think I'm going to do this thing again for this story._**

 ** _*Silence*_**

 ** _Amethyst: Oh, yeah, first chapter...no one's in the sign off room yet. Be right back. *Walks out*_**

 ** _?: OW OW OW OW OW OW!_**

 ** _Amethyst: Got one!_**

 ** _Alfred: That was my ear!_**

 ** _Amethyst: I know, so?_**

 ** _Alfred: So what did you do now?_**

 ** _Amethyst: I started your next story. Sorry, Alfie, your barely even in it until a lot later._**

 ** _Alfred: THEN WHY DRAG ME HERE!?_**

 ** _Amethyst: Because you were the first person I saw. I would have preferred Tino._**

 ** _Tino: What?  
_**

 ** _Amethyst: TINO! *Tackle hug*_**

 ** _Alfred: ...ok, I remember how this went last time. Favorite, follow, and review! Thanks a lot, bros, read next time in this new adventure of ours!_**


	2. Valentin Popescu

_**I got such a good feedback, and I recognized so many of you from reading the old stories! I'm so happy you all like this so much! Here's the next chapter, please enjoy!**_

* * *

 ** _At the Airport_**

Lukas stood with his hands clasped around a simple paper sign, Rome had requested he change into his official classroom uniform for the pick up, to make him easier to recognize.

He was holding the small sign, which had the new students name printed across it in all capitals, along with dozens of other people waiting at the busy international section.

He was watching several reunions, families crashing into each other in hugs and kisses and laughter and even a few tears.

Issue was, he didn't see his soon to be classmate. Not that he knew what they looked like, but the plane he was supposed to be on had already landed and the passengers had streamed through the international center. No one had seemed the right age or type to be the person Rome had told him about, and Lukas was waving his sign pretty hard in case he'd missed him.

"Are you waiting for a family member?"

Lukas glanced down at the woman he'd been standing next too, the girl was in her twenties, not much older then him.

"No, just a new student to my private school. I was sent to pick him up."

The girl nodded in understanding.

"I'm here for my brother, but he won't be here for another hour or so. I just got here so early because I didn't want to risk missing him."

Lukas didn't respond, hoping this would be hint enough that he didn't really want to talk.

The girl looked back out at the international section, then back up at Lukas.

"What school are you from?"

"Hetalia."

 _No, that's it, I'm done, I've been sucked into a conversation._

Lukas was now forced to make small talk with the girl, and after a few moments he couldn't take it anymore.

"Look, as nice as it is making pointless conversation, I don't want to miss my new schoolmate, so, I'll be leaving now."

Lukas beat a hasty retreat from the slightly insulted looking young woman, moving to the opposite side of the international gate.

 _I suppose that might be why everyone calls me cold..._

He thought to himself, glancing up at the gate regrettably. He didn't find it to be good or in any way helpful to discuss ridiculous things like his academics or the weather to a stranger. Perhaps a stranger can become a friend, but Lukas didn't really have capacity for very many more of those, so he decided to just leave it be. After waiting for several more minutes without spotting the new student or being approached, he dropped his sign to his side with a sigh.

He realized that the new kid must have gotten either lost, or held up, so he paced over to the help desk.

Lukas stepped up to the clerk next to another boy his age.

A friendly, gentle smile was on his face, exposing twin sharpened incisors, scarlet eyes darted all about, taken in the world he'd been sent to, pale skin practically glowed in the sunlight that streamed through the skylights.

He was wearing a plain white button up dress shirt, a gray vest, black dress pants, and a strange mini top hat that was trailing red and white ribbons.

He had light messy brown hair that was cut angularly, longest towards the front where he reached to just past his shoulders, and the back was shorter, just reaching the nape of his neck. He was talking to the clerk in a heavy accent.

"See, I came through the international gate and I could not find the pick up who's supposed to take me to my new school..."

The clerk was listening hard, obviously trying to figure out what the kid was saying through the accent.

Lukas hardly noticed the other teenager and proceeded to begin explaining his situation to the clerk in front of him.

This was when the clerk helping Lukas glanced over at the lost foreign boy.

"You said your looking for a teenager coming from Romania with a scholarship to Hetalia? Is that him right over there?"

Lukas looked down at the kid and let out a minuscule sigh of relief.

"Yes, I think that is him. Thank you." Lukas replied as he strode over to the brown haired teen.

"Are you Valentin Popescu?" Lukas asked, tapping him on the shoulder.

Valentin spun around as Lukas held up the sign, waving it half heartedly.

"I'm Lukas Bondevik, here to pick you up."

"Oh, good."

It was lucky Lukas was used to deciphering accents, especially with Berwald on his team, because Valentin's accent was very heavy, though his english was perfectly good.

"I was worried because when I woke up on the plane I was alone."

Lukas shrugged, "It happens."

Valentin blinked.

"So, where are we going?"

Lukas stared up at him, he was several inches taller, and crossed his arms.

"I assume your already aware of our _extracurricular_ activities?" Lukas asked softly as he strode for the exit, Valentin right behind him.

"Yes, isn't it cool?"

Lukas rolled his violet eyes.

"Oh, it's cool, it's cool until you've got about five bullets coming at you, your friend kidnapped, your little brother fighting off three grown men with weapons, and another one of your friends shooting off more people from the top of a skyscraper. That was only one night." Lukas rubbed his head.

"One horrible night. And please don't even bring up the orchestra. I thought I was supposed to be playing the xylophone, not getting held hostage."

Valentin looked confused as they walked across the road in front of the airport.

"That sounds awful, what happened?"

"I don't really think you need to know." Lukas replied coldly as they arrived at the Nordic's van, Lukas had basically hi-jacked it for the trip, but Headmaster had given him permission.

"Whoa!" Valentin cried, staring at the van.

"What?" Lukas deadpanned.

"This isn't a van, it's a tank!" Valentin insisted.

Lukas stepped up onto the running board and into the drivers seat.

"Just get in." He ordered.  
Valentin obliged and climbed into the passenger side.

"Seriously, though, this whole spy school thing, it sounds amazing!"

The bright smile on his face made Lukas think that Rome was incredibly wrong about this, after all, this kid certainly didn't seem the dangerous type.

Lukas thought about it.

 _Tino doesn't seem the dangerous type either. Yet how likely is it that he could blow up the world if he wanted too?_

"Ok. Look. Hetalia Academy isn't easy to survive at. Everyone who shows up thinks it's so cool but I've probably have one to many bullets shoot two inches past my head for my age."

Lukas drove them out onto the road that led towards the Academy.

Valentin nodded.

"Have you ever lost anyone?" He asked, looking concerned.

Lukas tightened his grip on the wheel.

"Yes. One of my best friends was killed the line of service. Our old van, before this one, was blown up, with him inside."

 _I'll say this to try and shake him up. If he believes I mean Tino, or slips up somewhere, I'll know he's connected to Morgan._

Valentin looked surprised.

"Thats horrible. I'm so sorry."

Lukas looked over at him, feeling slightly bad. Valentin looked truly shocked, and he looked truly as though he really did mean his words.

Lukas let out a heavy breath.

"Yeah, he was listed dead for a whole two months. That is, before we found out he'd escaped the explosion, made a run for it, and gotten captured. Rescue mission was a success, too. A botched success, but a success."

Valentin stared at him.

"So he's alive?"

Lukas promptly ignored him.

"Also, age differential is huge. As of two months ago our youngest student is eleven and our oldest is twenty three. Though the majority of us are about seventeen or so."

"Seriously, this friend of yours is alive? How'd he survive a van getting blown up?" The Romanian pressed.

Lukas smirked.

"We always used to say he was immune to fire. Finny's just fine, he's still in service for our team, though he refuses to stay in the van by himself anymore. Can't say I blame him."

Valentin nodded, he seemed to be paying close attention to the information.

Lukas began to rattle off a few more rules.

"You wear your official uniform to all classes, lunch, and in between classes, you'll be given a mission uniform to wear to combat practices or training sessions, and on missions themselves."

Another nod.

"You get a schedule and until you join up with a team you'll stay in the solo dorms. Once you join a team you get to move into a base."

"Can't I just join a team temporarily?" He asked.

Lukas rolled his eyes again.

"Joining a team is a pretty big commitment. Your trusting the other people on that team with your life. They trust you with theirs. It's how it works."

Valentin nodded.

"So tell me about your team then."

Lukas tightened his grip on the wheel, he didn't much enough talk at all, now he was stuck driving this romanian the forty five minute drive back to the academy and talking to him.

Lukas decided to comply with his request, and took a breath.

"I'm on a team called the Nordic 5. Mostly referred too as the Nordics. It's made up of the student representatives from the countries of Northern Europe. We're a full team with five active operatives. We have a weapons specialist and tech expert, or techie for short, a strategist, a driver, and a couple of combat fighters."

"Which one are you?" Valentin asked.

Lukas gave him a look for interrupting.

"I'm a combat fighter, I'm the better out of the two we have. The other one is younger then me and is also pretty skilled with computers. He's not as good as our techie though."

"What are the other operatives names?"

 _He sure asks a lot of questions for a guy that just got here._

Lukas thought, on edge. If it turned out that Valentin was an operative for Morgan, then telling him his teams real names could spell trouble. He elected to wait until Valentin was within academy walls for him to learn anyone else's names.

Therefore, he named his team, but not the way Valentin was expecting.

"Denmark is the strategist, Sweden is the driver, Finland is the techie, and Iceland is the other combat fighter."

"Huh?" Valentin looked confused.

"You guys are named after countries?"

"Our code names." Lukas replied shortly.

"So who are you?"

Lukas looked over to him cooly, violet eyes scanning over his face.

He decided he had to answer.

"I'm Norway."

Lukas swore he saw a slight look of knowing in Valentin's eyes, almost as if Lukas had just confirmed a suspicion of his, but after a few moments, he passed it off as his mind playing tricks.

The norwegian spent the rest of the drive letting Valentin bounce questions off of him, but he was careful not to give away any information that could prove useful to Morgan in any way.

Lukas wanted to cheer when he saw the spires of the academy come into view, he drove up to the parking garage and Valentin grinned brightly.

"This place is amazing!" He exclaimed excitedly.

 _There he goes with the 'amazing' thing again. Still I should give him the benefit of the doubt. It wouldn't be fair not to give him a chance when he hasn't done anything against us._

"This way." Lukas lead him into the building and towards the Headmaster's office.

Valentin was stopping to look at every little thing...until he saw one thing and burst out laughing.

"Hey! Is that you?"

"What?"

Lukas spun and saw a picture of himself in his pajama's cuddling his stuffed fish with a large red ribbon on it, fast asleep.

"Who put that there? Who took that? When!?" He hissed in a rare show of anger.

A soft snicker was heard.

Valentin yelped and so did the mystery picture taker when Lukas's arm shot out like a striking cobra, seizing ahold of a certain stupid teammate of his's tie.

"...Nor...mercy...mercy..." Mathias hacked out when Lukas flipped him to the floor, pinned him with a knee to the gut, and strangled him by the tie.

After holding him down for a good ten seconds and letting him sputter, Lukas let go of the tie, and stood up, a foot to either side of Mathias, who was lying on the floor trying to catch his breath.

"If you sneak into my room again, your my sparring partner for the rest of our terms. And I'm not holding back."

"Sorry man..." Mathias coughed as Lukas snatched the picture from the cabinet where Mathias had placed it and tore it into bits.

"Ok. Let's go."

Lukas turned back to Valentin, who nodded without a word and followed along as Lukas strode off, heading towards the Headmaster's office.

* * *

 _ **Valentin: *Inches into the room***_

 _ **Amethyst: Hi!**_

 _ **Valentin: *Winces* Just to be clear, you're not going to hit me, right?**_

 _ **Amethyst: Why would I? You've debuted.**_

 _ **Valentin: THANK YOU! *Passes out***_

 _ **Amethyst: Why is he so happy?**_

 _ **Lukas: You've punted him over the atlantic ocean three times, Amethyst.**_

 _ **Amethyst: Ooooooh yeeeeeeah...**_

 _ **Lukas: *Sigh* Favorite, follow, and review. Thank you for reading.**_

 _ **Amethyst: That was lame! I'm getting someone more enthusiastic! *leaves***_

 _ **Gilbert: *crashes into the room* YO! The awesome me is telling you to favorite with awesome favorites and follow with awesome follows and review about mein awesomeness!**_

 _ **Amethyst: Now THATS more like it!**_

 _ **Lukas: I can tell it is going to be really crowded in the sign off room by the end of this...**_


	3. Arrival and initiation

_**I have been slacking on my**_ ** _proofreading, I am so sorry! I will try my very best to do better with it, thank you for pointing that out to me, Fluff Helps Everything! And Arya Scarlett too, I'll try to pick it up! Please enjoy the next chapter!_**

* * *

They walked down towards the Headmaster's office, Lukas shortly answering the countless questions spilling from the romanians mouth.

He was almost overjoyed to see the door of the Headmaster's office come into view.

"Here we are. Bye."

Lukas opened the door for him and turned to leave.

"Lukas! Not so fast!"

Lukas practically froze three steps from the door and mentally groaned as he turned.

"You still need me, Headmaster? I've already missed a whole days practice."

Lukas asked.

Rome gestured at him to enter.

Lukas had no choice but to obey, while Valentin walked in with a jaunty grin.

"Hello! I'm Valentin, it's nice to meet you, Headmaster!"

He said cheerily.

Rome nodded with a friendly smile.

"Pleasure to have you joining our ranks, Valentin."

"I'm so excited to be here, I'll do my best to make the academy proud!"

Rome gave a smile.

"I have no doubt. You're native to Romania right?"

Valentin gave a closed eyed grin, Rome looked rather surprised by his pointed canines.

"Born and raised, sir."

Rome nodded, tapping the end of his pen on his desk.

"In that case, as you're code name, you'll be using the name Romania, is that alright with you?"

Valentin nodded.

"Of course, whatever you guys are normally used too."

Rome nodded again, "Good, and here..."

He reached behind his desk and produced a blue folder.

"Is you're class and training schedule. You'll be starting tomorrow."

"Thanks!" Valentin's voice was still as eager and excited has it had been the entire drive.

 _Does this guy ever run out of energy?_

Lukas wondered.

Valentin took the folder and stepped back from the desk.

Rome spoke again. "Would you mind letting me speak to Lukas for a moment?"

"Not at all!" Valentin walked back out of the office, holding his new schedule, and shut the door behind him.

Rome instantly became serious.

"As for you, Lukas, I want you to give Valentin a tour, take him down to the solo dorm, and let him eat with you're usual group. Help him get settled in."

Rome lowered his voice and Lukas instinctively moved closer.

"I also want to you keep a very close eye on what he's asking, I don't want you to leave him alone long enough for him to do something, should he be an enemy operative. Understand?"

Lukas nodded.

"Yes, sir."

"How have you been feeling about him so far?"

Lukas considered it.

"Well, sir, to be honest, he didn't really strike me as the type to work for Morgan. He's chipper, makes bad puns that are surprisingly funny, and he seems incredibly eager to learn. He was bouncing harmless questions off of me the entire drive."

Rome took this in and processed the information.

"There may just be a chance I was wrong about him, I won't deny that, but still, it's not worth the risk."

"I wholeheartedly agree, sir."

Rome gave a soft smile.

"You were a good pick, Norway. You and you're brother both."

Lukas found the smallest smile coming onto his face at his superiors compliment.

"I'm honored you trust me enough to give me this assignment, sir."

Rome leaned back into his chair.

"You've earned it. Now...take Valentin over to be...initiated. Dismissed."

Lukas turned on his heel and walked out of the office, finding Valentin waiting outside.

"Alright, we can go pick up you're new uniforms and drop by you're new room in the solo dorms so you can change, then I'll show you around?" Lukas asked.

"Sure. I hope I'm not being a bother, taking you from your classes. If you like, you can give me the directions to the room and I can meet up with you later?"

 _He tried to break away from me. But without really knowing him well, I can't tell if he's offering to be polite or if he's purposely trying to get alone in the academy._

Lukas shook his head.

"Don't worry about it. Headmaster Rome gave me leave from class and training today to help you out, so I may as well. Before that, though, I need to take you over to the arena for the initiation ceremony."

If this frustrated Valentin, he did not show it, his face was still fixed in a look mixed between cheerful and curious.

"Alright, what's it like? Anything I've got to do? Don't tell me I need to make a speech, I didn't come prepared." Valentin chuckled after this.

Lukas frowned.

 _Issue is, as far as I can tell, he's not a bad guy. I would have never pinned him to infiltrate for Morgan. I don't want to risk it though, if he's not who Headmaster Rome suspects he is, he'll be cleared of suspicion without a problem. It'll all work out. I trust Headmaster Rome not to do anything without reason. And Headmaster Rome trusts me not to fail this mission. I couldn't bear to let him down._

Lukas sighed softly.

"Alright, let's go."

"Ok."

 ** _Several hallways later._**

"Have fun."

Lukas shoved Valentin through the double doors.

Valentin blinked and looked around.

"What the...AHHH!"

Lukas strode around to go wait for Valentin at the other end of the tunnel, listening to the romanian screaming and apparently running for his life.

 _I'm pretty sure I got a land mine before now..._

Lukas thought to himself.

An explosion reached his ears as he waltzed down into the finishers tunnel.

 _There it is._

A loud thud was heard and Lukas arrived to look through the wide opens doors. Valentin was wiped out on the floor, and only the disk shattering upon impact with the ground two inches from his head got him back onto his feet.

Valentin was sprinting for the opposite door, and the crowd, which had been assembled before Valentin's arrival, as usual, was cheering him on. It was probably a rather overwhelming, such a large crowd suddenly surrounding you, with such a diversity of voices calling out. The romanian let out a yelp and narrowly ducked a flying dish, which shattered on a wall behind him.

Lukas watched as a wall cut of his view of Valentin, shooting up out of the ground.

Valentin came hurtling over it, kicking his legs over, he hit the dirt running and, with some impressive footwork, dodged several more flying disks.

Lukas raised an eyebrow.

 _You'd think he's had previous training...then again it could always be put down to the fact that he's naturally athletic, or has done sports in the past._

Valentin dove through the entryway and face planted to the ground in front of Lukas.

Lukas stared down at him with an air of uncaring about him as the crowd applauded the performance, before filing off, heading for the mess hall for dinner, this sort of sudden call to assemble to the arena for the initiation of a new student.

Valentin rolled over and Lukas offered him a hand.

"Just under four minutes, not bad. You didn't beat me, or any of the other top team's operatives, but you weren't to bad. You beat Denmark, but thats not much to brag about."

Valentin groaned and rubbed his head.

"What was that for?"

He gripped Lukas's hand and allowed himself to be pulled to his feet.

Ribboned hat knocked askew, Valentin's chest was heaving as Lukas spoke.

"It's a welcome. You're one of us now."

Part of Lukas was proud to welcome a new student, another part felt sickened by the idea that Valentin could turn against them any moment now.

* * *

 _ **Amethyst: Did I do better? I kinda failed grammar so...**_

 _ **Mathias: You're a writer and spend all your free time writing about us and yet you failed grammar?**_

 _ **Amethyst: ...shut up.**_

 _ **Mathias: HAHAHAHAHA! We need a better writer person guys! Hey, Lukas, we should hire a new author!  
**_

 _ **Amethyst: *Picks up laptop* And then Lukas back kicked Mathias in the face.**_

 _ **Lukas: *Spins and back kicked Mathias in the face***_

 _ **Mathias: WHY!? *Gets kicked and falls over***_

 _ **Lukas: *Looks down* I'm sure it's not surprising that I'm not at all sorry.**_

 _ **Amethyst: Let's see, who's the most enthusiastic person in the room...oh...well, people like you anyway I guess. You do it.**_

 _ **Li: Like, when did I even get here?**_

 _ **Amethyst: I'm pretty sure I dragged you in here to start since your one of my favorite characters.**_

 _ **Li: Hmph. Fine. Like, fav, follow, and review. Like, thanks. *Peace sign.***_


	4. Dinnertime

**_Yup. It looks like this is just gonna become a normal thing when you read a story by an author who has a brain about the consistency of scrambled eggs. I forgot to upload this chapter. I'm just glad it was integral to the story, just humor and intros. This is the missing dinner scene where Valentin first meets a lot of the other operatives. I accidentally skipped it. I apologize. Please enjoy._**

* * *

 ** _With Lukas and Valentin, on the way to the mess._**

"You guys wear these uniforms every day?" Valentin asked, now donning official Hetalia Academy colors and tugging at the high collar.

Lukas nodded vaguely.

Half of him was happy to have someone who seemed as capable and eager to learn as Valentin on board, the other half was worried and hated the idea that someone of Morgan's loyalties was tarnishing _their_ school uniform and _their_ school colors.

All thoughts like this were broken off when they reached the mess hall.

Gupta was trying and failing to break up Hercules and Sadik, France and England were rolling across the ground. Most of the high tables were filled with bantering students ignoring the two allies in a fist fight and the ancients looking ready to tackle each other.

Vash was sitting with a disgruntled look on his face as the table around him erupted into chaos, Hungary attacking Prussia with a frying pan, Austria exclaiming about taking his anger out through a piano, and Lilli just giggling.

Vash stood up abruptly to go sit with the allies, who were all either looking rather calm compared to Arthur and Francis. The Axis were relatively calm as well, and when the Micro Nations entered the scene, Lars was practically dragging Kaiser.

"Dude! Calm down!"

"NOT ART NOT ART!"

"Calm down! Calm down!"

Ladonia was dragging Kugelmugel by the back of the collar as he ran towards the hallway, but his feet were getting no traction and Lars was pulling him along with nearly no effort.

Hutt had his hands tucked behind his head, wearing his usual tasseled vest and shoulder, and his boots were clunky on the tile floors of the mess hall.

"It's funny, how he freaks out when he sees something not art, huh?"

Seborga asked, giggling as he walked along with his hands in his pants pockets.

Wy rolled her eyes, the long tail of her jacket drifting behind her.

"I say you're all mental. I mean, if it's not Kaiser, someone else will get ticked off at something." She grumbled.

"Hey! We'll still be number one one day!" Sealand cheered, jumping up and down so much his black hat, trailing red ribbons, tumbled off of his head and he had to scramble to catch it.

"Yeah, on the day the Allies, the Axis, the Nordics, the East Germans, the Baltic's, and the Ancients all graduate."

"You're such a downer, Wy!" Seborga, Hutt River, and Sealand all pouted.

Valentin stared after them.

"They're...awful young, aren't they?" He asked.

Lukas sighed and nodded.

"Young recruits. Kaiser there, with the long braided hair, is the youngest ever, he's only eleven. But I've seen some of his test scores, he's practically a genius."

Lukas lead the way over to his table.

"Alright, this is my team, and then the Axis, the Allies, and that one's an antisocial East German."

"Excuse me?" Vash asked critically, crossing his arms and sitting back in his chair, donning his squared off long coat and puffy hat, he had a rifle strapped across his back and had removed it and hung it on the back of his chair.

"You all have one large table..." Valentin observed.

Lukas shrugged as Tino stood up and put out a hand.

"Hello there! I'm Tino, it's nice to meet you."

Lukas's eyes instantly snapped to Valentin, and he swore he saw, for just an instant, the slightest flash of recognition. But an instant after this? Lukas could have easily put it to his imagination.

"Nice to meet you, I'm Valentin."

After this Tino realized everyone else was either angry, antisocial, or had their mouth full, so he began to walk in a circle around the table.

"And this..."

With every name he tapped the person on the head.

"Is Mathias, Berwald, Emil, Yao."

Tino earned a loud "AII-YAH!" when he patted the oldest of the group on the head.

"Kiku."

"Please to meet you." Kiku said, after wincing away from the head pat.

"Arthur, Francis."

"STUPID BLACK SHEEP!"

"VAIN SNAIL SLURPING ASS!"

Tino sighed and shook his head at them.

"Ludwig, Feliciano, Alfred, and Vash."

Vash didn't say a word.

Not one word.

Valentin looked a bit overwhelmed.

"Erm...hi!" He said, waving.

Varying degrees of greeting and welcome were swapped and soon enough Valentin had sat down with everyone else.

For a while, Lukas felt able to relax, with so many Hetalia operatives around, literally 99% of the school in the same room, if it turned out that Valentin was indeed an operative of Morgan, he wouldn't dare attempt anything, or he would have instantly been apprehended.

As the dinner chatter turned towards Valentin, Tino shot off a question.

"So what are you majoring in?"

Valentin flashed a smile.

"I'm trying for stealth and combat specialist."

Alfred laughed.

"Maybe Mattie can teach you a thing or two!"

"Who?"

Valentin asked.

Matthew, who had, in fact, been sitting with the rest of his team the entire time, sighed.

"It's ok...I'm used to it."

Tino winced.  
"I totally forgot to introduce you."

Valentin trailed off with a sheepish smile.

"Sorry, I didn't see you there."

Matthew shook his head.

"It's ok. They all told me that its part of my assets. They always call me unnoticed."

Valentin nodded.

"You must be pretty good at going undetected to earn that kind of recognition."  
"You mean lack of recognition, considering no one notices him!" Alfred laughed, slapping Matthew on the shoulder.

Matthew sighed yet again.

"Never mind..."

Alfred had now launched into a story, and eventually, with so many of the elite teens who had participated in the Morgan mission present, stories began to rewind back to that fateful night that had brought them all together as friends.

"Hey Icy! How'd you get in again?" Mathias asked.

"Alfred's chainsaw." Iceland grumbled, covering half of his face with his hands.

America clapped his hands once and banged both palms on the table.

"Ha! I remember that! You were stuck in a storm drain and I cut you out!"

"It's a miracle you didn't get half the building on our asses."

"Language." Lukas mumbled.

"So what? Mathias says it all the time."

"That's exactly why whenever you see Mathias doing something you do the opposite."

"Hey!"

Mathias cried out.

"You act like I'm some sort of idiot! C'mon, I'm not an idiot, right Berwald?"

Berwald blinked at him.

"Kinda are."

He said.

"Oh come on! You don't think I'm stupid, do you Tino?" Mathias turned on the younger finnish boy.

Tino let out an awkward laugh.

"I'm going to get a refill, anyone need one?"

He asked, standing up and snatching up his cup.

Berwald extended his cup in Tino's direction.

"Could use one."

"No problem, Sve!"

He took Sweden's cup and walked away, leaving Mathias with his face in the table, sobbing about how his team thought he was good for nothing but kicking people.

Lukas sighed.

"Your not entirely annoying."

He mumbled.

Mathias looked up, shocked.

"THAT'S THE NICEST THING YOU'VE EVER SAID TO ME!" He wailed, somehow dragging Lukas into a hug over the table.

"Let go of me, your still incredibly annoying." Lukas ordered, wriggling free as Tino returned with his and Berwald's drinks.

"Hey, you guys know what my favorite part of the Morgan Mission was?"

Mathias began again.

"Hm?"

Iceland gave a questioning hum as he reached for a soda and Lukas slapped his hand away, trading the soda out for a bottle of water.

"It's to late for soda."  
"It's seven o'clock!"

While the brothers bickered, Mathias snickered.

"The look on Headmaster's face when he saw that we blew the Morgan Skyscraper to bits!"

Tino grinned.

"I was in the infirmary, but I can still imagine it, it would have been so funny, I wish I had been there!"

"Tiny issue, you were pretty unconscious." Iceland pointed out.

Finland's face went blank, then he let out another innocent bark of laughter.

"Your right, I forgot!"

Lukas raised an eyebrow skeptically.

"You forgot you were unconscious?"

Tino huffed and crossed his arms.

"I certainly didn't want to remember being such a weakling!"

Berwald patted Tino on the back.

"Nothing wrong with it." He said, his heavy accent making the words nearly impossible to understand.

Tino nodded glumly.

"I guess so. I just felt so useless!"

Mathias grinned.

"You fixed Emil's explode-y thing!"

Tino nodded.

"Yeah, that's true."

Yao had decided to enter his thoughts.

"Can you believe it hasn't even been a year since the Morgan Mission? Feels like years, aru!" He exclaimed.

Arthur then frowned.  
"Yao, aren't you going to be graduating at the end of this year?"

Everyone went dead silent. No one liked the idea of losing their favorite hello kitty obsessed, wok wielding, ridiculously short ally.

Yao rolled his eyes.

"I'm going for a full term, aru. More years under my belt, higher agencies that want to hire me. Your stuck with me for another three and a half years, aru."

Alfred snickered.  
"I wonder if you'll still have that stupid pink girly hello kitty display all up in your room when you move out. You'll be twenty three by then!"

Yao's eye started twitching.

"Hit the deck!" Arthur shouted and everyone at the table dove under the table, minus Valentin, who just gawked as Yao threw himself straight over the table, kicking Alfred square in the chest and sending him flying out of his chair.

"Run Alfred run! Run Alfred run! Run Alfred run!"

 _Literally_ the entirety of everyone in the mess hall started chanting this over and over again as the american barely dodged Yao's wok slamming to the floor where his head had been.

"AHHH!"

"GET BACK HERE, ARU!"

The chanting died down as Yao chased after Alfred all the way out the mess hall doors.

Valentin's eyes were the size of tennis balls as he stared after the two allies that had just gone tearing out the doors.

Everyone else in the room had gone back to their food and conversations, just as before. The people at the table where the angry hello kitty fan had previously been sitting all stood up from under the table and slid back into their chairs.

Valentin turned to Lukas.

"Is that normal?" He asked.

"Yes."

Everyone at the table chorused.

"At least three times a week." Arthur chimed in.

"Normally Alfred manages to dodge the first kick and get a head start though..." Matthew observed.

Valentin shook his head slowly, Lukas was reasonably sure by now that he thought they were all insane.

The Nordic shook his head, he was paying to close attention, he was surrounded by his closest friends and most skilled comrades at that moment. Be Valentin a spy or no, at that moment, he could relax.

Lukas reminded himself sternly, really needed to start doing this relaxing thing more often.

* * *

 _ **Amethyst: Sorry everyone! I forgot to upload this chapter! Have I done this every story so far?**_

 _ **Mathias: You did it in our story.**_

 _ **Matthew: Not in mine...**_

 _ **Wisteria: I don't think you did it in ours, but you did accidentally post our chapters to Call Us Hetalia a bunch of times.**_

 _ **Valentin: Well you clearly did it in mine since this IS my story and you forgot this chapter right here.**_

 _ **Yao: My story only has two chapters uploaded so far so I don't know if you will be forgetting yet, aru.**_

 _ **Amethyst: I'm a failure! *Hides in the corner with her bag of cheetos and laptop* I'll be over here binging Haikyuu season 2 don't mind me.**_

 _ **Valentin: Should we try to talk to her?**_

 _ **Mathias: No. Don't bother her when she goes into EMO mode. It's best to just let her binge her anime in peace.**_

 _ **Valentin: Oh. Ok. In that case, hi readers! Surprise, my story got updated one more time! Please review! Or, you know, if you can't since you reviewed to this before, then that's cool too. Thanks for reading everyone!**_


	5. Brothers

**_Hello and please enjoy the next chapter, including Tino being the tiny little genius we all know and love!_**

* * *

The dinner passed quickly, and in no time Valentin was leaving for the solo dorms.

"I'll meet you guys back here tomorrow morning!" He called before heading off.

Lukas nodded, walking off with the other Nordics.

He spotted Headmaster Rome walking away from them down an intersecting hallway and turned to his team.

"I'll catch up with you guys." He promised, before turning and running down the hall.

"Headmaster!" He called.

Rome stopped, glancing over his shoulder as Lukas jogged to a halt in front of him.

"Sir, I need to ask you something."

Rome turned to face Lukas.

"Go ahead." He prompted.

Lukas steeled his face.

"I want to tell the other Nordic's about your mission for me. Make it a team effort."

Rome shook his head.

"I'm afraid you just can't. It's not that I don't trust them, but I chose you because you are very quiet and cold by nature. There's much less a chance of you letting something slip then Mathias or Tino. No offense."

"None taken." Lukas said, nodding. He'd been told he was cold and cruelly honest before.

"But I don't like having to do something without them. It feels like I'm hiding it from them. Besides, if I told them, then it would be easier to keep an eye on Valentin. He's in Denmark's combat class. He's in Finland's workshop. He's in Iceland's computer lab. He's in Sweden's strategy class."

Rome grudgingly thought about it, crossing his arms and scrunching up his face.

"Alright." He finally ruled.

Lukas let out a sigh of relief.

"Only because I know if I say no you'll tell them anyway."

Lukas looked up at his superior in surprise.

"How did you..."

Rome smiled and gave Lukas a peace sign.

"Your team is very close, I know that no matter how much you swear they're annoying and idiotic, you tell them everything."

Lukas let out a soft huff and nodded.

"Well, I'll be off then!"

Rome said before he gave Lukas a two fingered salute.

"Good luck!"

Lukas nodded.

"Thank you."

Before turning and taking off down the halls, running to catch up with his team so they could form a plan together, just as they always did.

 ** _Later that night, in the Nordic 5 base._**

"Wha?" Tino's shocked voice chimed through the base.

"Your kidding, Nor!" Mathias chimed in.

Emil shrugged.

"I could see it."

Berwald grunted in agreement with the youngest member of the team.

Lukas, who stood in front of the rest of team, pacing back and forth, nodded.

"It's true. Headmaster Rome suspects Valentin of being a spy for Morgan. If that turns out to be true, it's my job to catch Valentin with something enough to incriminate him of being guilty. Issue is, we're not even sure if we were just fed false info, and Valentin is just another perfectly innocent addition to our academy that we should welcome with open arms. It's a difficult situation."

Mathias frowned and crossed his arms.

"At this very moment he could be snooping around in our top secret stuff! I don't like it!"

Tino raised a finger.

"But don't forget, just as easily as he could be spy, he could just be victim of one wild misunderstanding. It's not fair to doubt him when he's done nothing wrong."

Berwald grunted.

"Can't say he's innocent until we prove he's guilty. Can't say he's guilty until we prove him innocent."

The tallest member of the group spoke, his deep voice rumbling out low from his throat.

"My thoughts exactly, Sve." Mathias said praisingly.

Lukas sighed and crossed his arms.

"Basically, we just need to figure out a way to keep an eye on him without letting him know we're onto him. And theres always the chances he's never even heard of Morgan before, so...yeah."

Emil took a breath, then shook his head and let it out again, the air gusting out from between his lips in a barely audible sigh.

Lukas glanced over to him.

"You think of something?" He asked, walking over and taking a seat on the couch next to his brother.

Emil shook his head.

"It's stupid." He responded.

Lukas put an arm around his shoulder, which was instantly shrugged off by the younger, but this didn't deter the feeling he was attempting to convey.

"Nothings stupid on a team like this." He said.

Everyone looked at Mathias, who huffed indignantly and slouched in his armchair, crossing his arms.

"I don't like how everyone looked at me when he said that. I really don't appreciate how you all think I'm an idiot."

Mathias grumbled.

Tino chuckled and patted him on the arm.

"We've all had our stupid moments, don't feel bad."

Lukas turned his violet eyes back down to Emil.

Emil looked up at him with those identical eyes.

"Fine..." Emil mumbled.

"Well, I was just thinking, Tino's been working on those trackers for the cars, right?"

Tino nodded eagerly.

"I finally figured out how to power them too!" He exclaimed, sounding giddy.

Emil continued on.

"I just thought maybe Tino could build a smaller version of the tracker and we could plant it on Valentin's uniform jacket or something. He'll be wearing the uniform at least 75% of the time."

Lukas's eyes widened as something else dawned on him.

"I've got an even better idea."

 ** _The next day, breakfast._**

"This place is like a maze!" Valentin exclaimed as he sat down with the Nordic's at their breakfast table with his own plate.

Mathias was stuffing his face, Berwald had to eat a large amount for someone his size, and Tino was able to put down a remarkably large amount for his small form.

Emil twirled bits of egg around on his fork, eyeing the food disinterestedly.

"Not a morning person?" Valentin asked cheerily.

"Unlike you. You seem to be the kinda person who can be in a good mood at 3 AM." Emil grumbled.

"Manners." Lukas said.

"It's too early for me to care." Emil replied, finally electing to shove the small amount of eggs on his fork into his mouth.

Lukas shook his head at Emil before turning to Valentin.

"So, a good first night at the Academy?"

Valentin nodded without hesitation.

"The room's great, and I had a good nights sleep." He responded.

Mathias glanced up.

"Hey, your weird little hat doesn't match your uniform."

Valentin blinked, then he reached up and removed the hat, looking at the white and red ribbons.

"I guess your right, that's a shame."

He mumbled, tossing the hat to the table.

"Whats the point in such a tiny hat anyway?" Mathias asked.

Valentin's scarlet eyes looked up to the small black angular hat perched on Mathias's head to one side.

"You haven't got room to talk." He chuckled.

Mathias shrugged.

"I guess it's a good thing Lukas spotted this in the fitting room."

Mathias offered Valentin a hat that was slightly larger and more rounded then his old one, trailing black and red.

"Cool! Thanks!" Valentin grinned and took the hat, using it to replace his old one.

"My Dad used to wear a hat like this when I was really little, so I picked up the habit, glad I've got a new one that matches school colors. Thanks, Lukas."

Lukas nodded and took a draught of coffee.

Tino grinned.

"Lukas isn't much of a morning person either! Looks like you do have something in common, eh, Emil?"

Emil rolled his eyes.

"And his eyes."

Berwald spoke.

Tino chortled.

"True!"

Valentin raised an eyebrow.

"You guys are related, then?"

Lukas was too busy chugging coffee in an attempt to wake himself up to answer, so Emil unwillingly did so.

"Yeah, he's my big brother."

Lukas smiled for the first time since Valentin had arrived and Mathias cackled.

"Look at that, Icy, you just made Nor's day!"

"More like his week! Emil never likes to admit Lukas is his big brother!"

Valentin grinned.

"I can see it now. You guys look a lot alike."

"Our eye color and our dislike of times before 10:00 am don't count."

Emil grumbled.

"Then what about your hair?"

The two silver haired brothers glanced at each other.

"He's blonde!" Emil exclaimed.

"Barely. You're both in high school and already have heads full of gray hair." Mathias snickered.

"Shut up!" Emil cried indignantly.

Valentin's smile didn't fade, instead he pawed through his messenger bag, dangling from the back of his chair, and produced his class/training schedule.

"On the other hand, can anyone tell me how to get to my first class of the day?"

Mathias took the folder from his hands and scanned over it.

"Oh! You can walk with me, I'm in the same combat class."

Valentin looked at him in confusion.

"But aren't you, like, two years ahead of me?"

He asked.

Mathias shrugged.

"Yeah, I am, but that doesn't mean we don't have classes together. We're all organized in means of our level, not our age. You've already had some combat training, so Headmaster Rome couldn't stick you in the beginners class with the students who are still learning how to punch and kick."

Valentin looked surprised.

"I didn't think he put that much thought into it."

Tino let out another bubbly laugh.

"He thinks of everyone! He could tell you the names, code names, specialties, and weaknesses of every single operative here right off the top of his head! He can even say me and Berwald's last names correctly!"

"I can't." Emil deadpanned.

"Not like you're any better off, Steely-son." Mathias laughed.

"Oy! It's Steilsson!"

Valentin then recalled Lukas's last name, which he had learned when he'd first met Lukas at the airport.

"Didn't you just say that you and Lukas were brothers?"

Emil and Lukas both glanced up to him, sleep deprived violet eyes looking mildly curious as to what Valentin was talking about.  
"Yeah. We are. Why?"

Valentin looked even more confused.

"But Lukas, you told me at the airport your last name was...what was it? Bond-something?"

"Bondevik." Lukas said disinterestedly, taking another deep swallow of caffeine.

"So if your brothers why do you have different last names?"

"I've forgot my notebook at the base."

"I'm meeting Li on my way to class."

The two brothers stood up and strode off, side by side before branching off in different directions.

Tino let out a sigh.

"They don't like to talk about their family issues." The small blonde said, putting a hand to his cheek and resting his elbow on the table.

Valentin could have literally had a question mark floating above his head from the amount of curiosity on his face.

Mathias shrugged.

"Lukas was born in Norway, two years later, their Mom found out she was having Emil and, for reasons they haven't told us yet, and I'm pretty sure aren't to nice, the Mom moved to Iceland and left Lukas with his Dad in Norway. Emil was born in Iceland and they moved to the states a little while later. When Emil was six and Lukas was eight, they decided to bring the family back together, and Lukas and his Dad moved in with Emil and his Mom. Beautiful family whatever for a few years. After that they refuse to go into detail. They said that their Mom died and their Dad turned abusive and they ran away to one of Lukas's older schoolteachers. They lived with her until Lukas was recruited into the academy. Two years later the same thing happened to Emil. And now they're here."

Valentin didn't know just what to say.

"That's tough..." He said finally.

Mathias let out a tired sigh as he leaned back in his seat, tucking his arms behind his head.

"It's hard on them both, but they've got each other. Even if Lukas isn't much of a talker and Emil isn't much of an emotional person. Life carries on."

Tino nodded.

"Too true." He agreed before he stood and turned towards the hall, slinging his backpack over his shoulder.

"Well, I'm off!" He said cheerily, waving over his shoulder.

"Bye!"

Berwald stood and nodded to the remaining two at the table, not making a sound as he strode off behind the finnish boy.

Valentin scarfed down the rest of his food and stood up, the red and black ribbons on his new hat trailing through the air like wisps of wind.

"All set!" He exclaimed.

Denmark nodded and came to his feet.

"Well, it's a good thing you figured out, at least, that you've gotta wear your combat gear to combat classes." Mathias remarked.

Valentin chuckled, glancing down at his dark red overcoat, black undershirt, red tie, and black pants tucked into black boots.

"I'm not that dense." He said.

Mathias grinned and jumped to his feet, his own black overcoat wrapped around him.

"Well, let's head out!" He declared.

The two students walked out of the mess hall together, said hall was slowly emptying of students as everyone left for their first classes of the day.

Unbeknownst to the Romanian, now taking the opportunity of being alone with Mathias to begin bouncing more questions of the Dane, Tino was tapping at the side of a tablet device and biting his tongue.

With a flash of light, the layout of the academy was suddenly projected onto the screen, and it zoomed quickly in on the floor where the dojo was.

A single blue blip was making it's way down the corridor.

A worryingly evil smile lit up Tino's face.

"Got you."

* * *

 _ **Amethyst: Ok, there seems to be a bit of an issue going on with you guys understanding the way the academy is set up, granted, I did explain this only once, briefly, in the first story and probably could have done it way better. I have brought in the experts to explain this to you guys!**_

 ** _Rome: And apparently I'm the 'experts'. Hello! Ok, so this is how our academy works. There are three options for new arrivals in our academy, they can either form a new team, join an existing one, or go for a solo carrier and possibly join a team later on. So, if you are a new student, you could..._**

 ** _Poland: Join us, the Baltic's! We've got one more spot left on our team!_**

 ** _Yong Soo: Or us, East Asia! We've got a spot open!_**

 ** _Yao: Not us, please, aru! We've already got one extra with Matthew!_**

 ** _Tino: I wish we could let you join with us, you seem great, but we're already full unless Headmaster tells us to take in another operative!_**

 ** _Hercules: *Snore*_**

 ** _Amethyst: *Kick* Wake up! It's your turn to pitch to the reader who's pretending to be a new student!_**

 ** _Hercules: Oh, right. You could join us, the Ancients. Bring a friend, too, we've got two spots available._**

 ** _Amethyst: Does that make sense? I hope so, if not, PM me and I'll explain it in more detail if necessary! Yong Soo's turn!_**

 ** _Yong Soo: Favorite, follow and review! You know, favoriting and following and reviewing all actually originated in Korea~_** ** _._**

 ** _Amethyst: *Sigh* Sorry about him...but still, review and all that jazz! Thanks!_**


	6. Combat Class

_**I have been waiting to do a chapter like this since this series began, because, just how did you think all of them got so good at hand to hand combat? Why, it was all thanks to their terrifyingly strict professor who will judo throw someone as a welcome! Please enjoy!**_

* * *

 ** _Combat Class_**

"Hey! Professor Gojosen! You're back!"

Denmark exclaimed as he entered the dojo with Valentin right behind him.

A short man with large brown eyes, black hair tied back in a short bun, and lightly tanned skin spun on his heel to face them when addressed.

"Oh. You." He said shortly.

He wore a pair of loose fit red pants tucked into black leg wraps with black slippers. A wrap around red shirt with a black sash, and had a very no nonsense attitude about him.

"How was your trip?" Mathias asked as he walked up to his professor, who was a good deal shorter then him.

"Fine."

Gojosen allowed his gaze to slide back to Valentin.

"Who's this?" He strode up to the young man.

The rest of the class, consisting of the Axis, minus Kiku, Michelle, from the island of Seychelles, the Ancients, and all of the East Germans, looked over to see their newest peer.

Valentin gave a polite smile.

"I'm Valentin Popescu, sir. It's a pleasure to meet you."

"Code name?" Gojosen asked, equally brash.

"Romania, sir."

Gojosen put out his hand.

Valentin shook it and let out a startled shout when Gojosen took a single step back, hefted Valentin's entire weight off of the ground, and judo threw him across the room into the wall.

Valentin groaned as he slid to the floor.

"Lesson one, never let your guard down. If you're new, and you're good enough to be placed directly into this class, either Rome is an idiot, not that I doubt that, or your halfway good at defending yourself. Alright, now..."

Valentin rolled over his shoulders and stood up, rubbing his back. Everyone else in the class was stifling giggles.

"Don't worry about it, he tossed me straight back out the door on my first day." Mathias whispered to Valentin, covering his mouth with a gloved hand.

Gojosen had turned and begun to pair them all up to spar, and to Valentin's immense surprise, his opponent was as large as him, broad shouldered, well built and muscular.

And dead sleep on his feet.

Valentin blinked, while Lilli and Michelle were throwing punches and kicks on the mat next to them, his opponent was still snoring.

"Am I just suppose to..."

He was completely lost.

Gojosen crossed his arms.

"Never waste opportunity!" He barked.

Assuming that meant attack his sleeping classmate, Valentin, feeling a tad guilty, threw a back kick at the greek.

Hercules's eyes snapped open and he caught Valentin's ankle.

Hercules threw his weight backwards, twisting his torso and flexing his arms, the greek hurled the romanian to the mat.

Valentin sputtered, the wind knocked out of him.

Hercules blinked twice before releasing Valentin's ankle and yawning.

"Sorry, what were we doing?" His voice sounded impossibly easy going for the speed at which he'd just moved.

Mathias cackled madly from a few mats over, his opponent, one Roderich Edelstein, already bent over at the waist gasping.

"Don't underestimate old Hercules! He's sharper then you give him credit for!"

Valentin pushed himself up to his feet.

"Noted." He moaned.

"Ok...round 2..."

He raised his fists.

Greece had fallen asleep again.

"Seriously?" Valentin asked incredulously, throwing his hands into the air.

"No hesitation!" Gojosen shouted harshly.

Valentin shot a punch at Hercules, it actually cracked him right across the face.

This woke the brown haired teenager up, and after several exchanges of kicks and punches, Valentin wound up on the floor again.

"Sorry." Hercules repeated.

Valentin let out defeated sigh and jackknifed to his feet.

"I'll never learn if I don't get knocked down a few times!"

Mathias filed this away in the back of his mind.

 _He isn't the type to give up, and getting your ass kicked by a snoring greek twice in a row probably doesn't help your self esteem._

Mathias was broken from his thoughts when he was kicked squarely in the jaw and sent tumbling to the mat.

Gojosen strode over, holding his hands behind his back.

"You let yourself be distracted! Do not lose concentration, or you will lose your life!"

Mathias sat up and rubbed his face.

"Got it, Prof." He groaned.

He found himself getting whacked in the back of the head by his professor hard enough for his head to snap forward.

"Ow..." Mathias whined, rubbing the back of his head.

"Up! Will an enemy give you time to catch your breath?" Gojosen's accented voice rang in his ears.

The Dane obeyed, taking to his feet again.

"Alright, Austria, now you're going down!"

Mathias's left knee bent suddenly and he dropped, spinning and sweeping his right leg out, knocking Roderich's feet out from under him.

Roderich rolled out of the way of the second blow Mathias was aiming and shot to his feet by pushing off of his hands.

The austrian kicked out again with his heavy black boots, drawing his knee upwards and landing the sole into Mathias's chest.

Mathias bent inward to absorb the impact and caught his breath quickly. He grabbed Austria by the ankle and pulled, sending the bespectacled operative stumbling towards him. The Dane had a cheeky smirk on his face as he grabbed Roderich by the shoulders and slammed his knee up into Roderich's stomach.

Roderich let out a gasp and fell to his knees, clutching at his stomach, nearly doubled over.

"That's a low blow..." He croaked.

"Whatever you gotta do to win!" Mathias cackled.

"Switch!" Gojosen barked.

Mathias found himself facing down Elizabeta, and she looked absolutely murderous at the fact that Roderich was on his knees sputtering.

"Are you alright?" She asked quickly, dropping to Roderich's side.

"I'm fine, just, need to breathe for a moment."

Roderich groaned before getting to his feet.

"That was a rather unpleasant experience..." He grumbled.

"Maybe you should write a song about it. AFTER you come over here and fight me! Kesesesese~" Gilbert cackled from the next mat over.

Roderich glanced up at him unenthusiastically.

"I have to deal with that imbecile?"

"You can do it, take it too him!" Elizabeta encouraged, patting Roderich on the arm.

"Thanks." The Austrian nodded and smiled.

The instant he had gone over to the next mat Elizabeta turned on Mathias with a glare that, if looks could kill, would have set Mathias on fire right on the spot.

"Oh god..." Mathias whispered.

"No mercy, Eliza! No mercy!" Gojosen urged.

"Don't worry Professor, I don't plan on giving any."

While Mathias was screaming in the background, Valentin found himself facing another foe he found less then threatening, of course, after the ten minute session of being repeatedly slammed to the floor by Hercules, who kept falling asleep in between rounds, he had learned not to doubt in anyone's strength.

Still, the egyptian he was now facing seemed rather emotionless.

"I am Gupta. I have not yet had the chance to greet you." He said, his voice completely level, all that was clear about it was the accent.

 _But of course._

Valentin reminded himself.

 _Nearly everyone here speaks accented english._

Valentin nodded.

"Nice to meet you!" He said, his friendly nature coming in.

The headdress Gupta was wearing partially hid his face.

"Prepared?"

"Of course!"

Valentin took up a fighting stance.

Gupta came with a his arms straight backwards, a short cry escaped his mouth as he brought his leg up and around.

Valentin barely dodged it, and Gupta swung around yet again, performing a complete revolution and bringing his heel straight into Valentin's shoulder.

Valentin staggered to one side and narrowly ducked the the fist that followed.

He snapped up his head and seized Gupta by the wrist, pulling down hard, he forced the egyptian to perform a front flip. Instead of landing flat on his back on the ground, which was what Valentin had been going for, he managed to flip all the way and land squarely on his feet. Gupta brought his arm up, Valentin released his wrist to not to fall forward, and Gupta's foot shot through the narrow opening Valentin had giving when he raised his arms slightly.

His boot connectedly solidly with his stomach and Valentin sprawled onto the floor again.

Gojosen sighed and massaged his forehead.

"I should send you off to fight with the Micro Nations! Kugelmugel could push you over!" He barked.

"Use your advantages! Find your strengths, and apply them to your opponent's weaknesses!"

Valentin got to his feet again and tried to figure out what his advantages and strengths were.

The first thing that came to mind was height, he was nearly a foot taller then the egyptian.

Another punch was thrown and the two began to spar yet again.

Height isn't all to helpful in the sort of situation the romanian was in, he was going to have to think outside the box for this one.

Before any more ideas could be had, Valentin was seized by the arm and flipped to the floor again.

Gojosen sighed.

"Switch!" He shouted.

The students on the mats all rotated around.

Valentin was staring down into a pair of absolutely livid green eyes.

"Um...what did I do to make you angry at me?"

The brown haired hungarian scowled.

"I'm just in a bad mood."

"IT'S THAT TIME OF THE MONTH, IF YOU KNOW WHAT I MEAN, JA!?"

Came the shout of a certain german albino from across the room.

Elizabeta turned a deep shade of red and threw a rage kick at Valentin's head, while at the same time shrieking threats at her teammate.

While listening to Valentin screaming and Gilbert laughing, Mathias stood, waiting for Hercules to wake up, and shook his head.

 _I really don't see how this guy can be an operative for Morgan when he just got his butt handed to him by a lazy greek, a techie egyptian, and now a hungarian with mood swings. Then again, everyone in this school has had their butt's handed to them by that last one._

"Mathias!"

Professor Gojosen roared.

"Oh, yeah, right!"

* * *

 _ **Amethyst: I had such a good time writing that, it still makes me smile every time I reread it.**_

 _ **Mathias: You smile when I'm in pain?**_

 _ **Amethyst: Who doesn't?**_

 ** _Mathias: That hurts...that really hurts..._**

 ** _Amethyst: I wouldn't smile if you were seriously injured, but you getting chased around by Elizabeta is pretty humorous._**

 ** _Valentin: Why does she hate me?_**

 ** _Kiku: I have stated before, this is a reference to your cannon characters._**

 ** _Valentin: What does that mean?  
_**

 ** _Kiku: We do not exist in this world as we know it, we are, in fact, simply being manipulated by Amethyst-san to do whatever she wants. We are all actual nations but we got turned into teenagers and put in this academy to fight for our lives and suffer personal trauma, hatred, attraction, rejection and large amounts of homework for the amusement of her and others who are watching our every move right now. We are nothing more then pawns in her game, to be moved by her will and the will of the so called reviewers who request things of her._**

 ** _Valentin: ..._**

 ** _Mathias: ..._**

 ** _Amethyst: ..._**

 ** _Kiku: Also, please favorite, follow, and review for our further adventures throughout this manipulated world, arigato. *Bows*_**


	7. Password

_**Heres a new chapter, please enjoy!**_

* * *

 ** _With Tino._**

The bell rang from the corner speaker and Tino let out a relieved sigh, he wasn't much for english class, anyway.

The professor who taught their english class was british woman by the name of Professor Britannia, who had fiery red hair, a large amount of reddish freckles across her pale skin, and was quick to snap at anyone who was back talking, disobeying, disrespecting, or misbehaving in her class.

As the finnish teen packed away his books into his backpack, someone came up from behind him.

His violet eyes turned to the approaching duo, and he recognized them instantly.

"Oh, Feliks, Toris. Hiya!" He said, smiling as he slung his backpack over his shoulder.

"Do you have any clue when the next orchestra practice is? I, like, totes miss it." Feliks whined, he was holding Toris's hand and the lithuanian looked rather defeated by his friends manner, not even bothering with attempting to free his hand from the polish blondes grasp.

"You know you more mean you are missing the reason to be missing the math class every Wednesday." He pointed out with a knowing smile.

Feliks threw his hands into the air, and Toris quickly put his own hands behind his back.

"I, like, miss the music!" The emerald eyed boy insisted.

Tino laughed his usual cheery way.

"I know what you mean, well, I'll ask Roderich if I see him, kay?"

Feliks grinned, eyes glittering.

"Why didn't I think of that sooner!? To Roderich! Let's go, Tory!"

"But what about lunch?"

"I wasn't hungry anyway!"

Toris was dragged out the door by Feliks, giving Tino a very obvious

'save me' look.

Tino smiled and waved.

"Bye guys!" He called.

After the two had vanished down the hall, Tino lifted his pack and walked out of the classroom. He strode towards the mess hall, greeting several others as he passed. It was then he decided he may as well check on his secret weapon against the possible spy in the building.

Tino reached the mess hall and hung his backpack on one of the high silver metal chairs. He scrambled up into the chair, his feet dangling a foot or so from the ground. Swinging his feet beneath him, Tino unzipped his backpack and withdrew the tablet. He switched it on and went straight to a hidden app, which disguised a function page, the map of the academy fanned out across the glowing screen and, after a moment of buffering, a blue blip appeared, making it's way steadily towards the mess hall.

Giving a satisfied smile at his work, Tino switched off the tablet and returned it to it's case in his backpack. A few moments later Emil came shuffling up, his hair was spiked up wildly and his cargo jacket was singed.

Tino smiled at him.

"Hiya!" He gave his signature greeting.

Emil coughed and a bit smoke actually trailed out of his mouth.

"I hate chemistry. Especially when Li's my partner."

Tino laughed as Emil took a seat.

"He blew up our project. I don't know how, nothing was even flammable. But he blew it up."

Tino's bright look of amusement didn't fade.

"Sounds like something I'd do!" He exclaimed.

Lukas walked over and looked Emil up and down.

"Are you hurt?" He asked.

"No. Just nearly had a heart attack when my entire table erupted into colorful smoke, that's all." He grumbled.

Lukas sighed and walked off, returning shortly thereafter with a damp towel.

"Thanks." Emil grudgingly accepted, wiping his face clean.

Lukas sat down next to him and reached over, beginning to run his hands over Emil's head, smoothing his brothers hair down.

"You look like you stuck a fork in an electric socket." He commented.

Emil groaned and swatted unsuccessfully at Lukas's hands.

"I can fix my own hair." He grumbled.

Still, Lukas insisted and Emil finally caved, allowing his older brother to fix his insane hair, and in a moment his silvery locks had returned to their usual style.

Moments later, Valentin came staggering up with Mathias, both looked out of breath. Valentin even bumped into the back of Tino's chair, nearly knocking his backpack down.

"Sorry!" He caught the pack and hung it back on the the chair where it had been previously.

Lukas took one look of them and raised an eyebrow, appearing mildly curiously.

"Professor Gojosen is back?" He guessed.

"And as ruthless as ever..." Mathias groaned as he collapsed into the chair, Valentin fell into the one beside him and dropped his face into his folded arms.

"How many times do we have to do that?" He asked, his voice muffled because his face was completely buried in his arms.

"Twice a week. And you've still got ropes, daily workouts, and other stuff. You're going for combat and stealth, you'll be spending more time in the dojo and the arena then in the classroom or the library."

"Fun..." Valentin let out a heavy sigh before sitting up and putting a confident look on his face, fisting his hands at shoulder height, bending his elbows. His scarlet eyes looked determined.

"Well, now I know what to expect! I can hang in there, I managed to take down Vash! And the next rotation I even took the sleepy guy down once!"

Mathias grinned.

"Hercules isn't a push over, like I warned you!" Mathias insisted, waving his arms in the air.

Valentin sighed.

"It's so hard to take a guy who falls asleep between rounds seriously, though!"

"You should take all of your opponents seriously."

Everyone at the table jumped when Berwald was suddenly standing behind Tino with his furious face and shadowy aura in full effect.

"EEEEEHHHHHHKKKK!"

Tino shrieked and nearly tumbled out of his chair.

Mathias cackled.

"You sound like Hanatamago!"

Valentin stared.

"What in the world is a Hanatamago?" He asked.

Mathias looked over at him, his eyes sparkling with amusement.

"Tino's silly stuffed dog that used to make a barking sound! Now whenever you squeeze it's paw it just makes this distorted, really creepy shrieking noise. Exactly what Tino just did!"

Mathias started laughing again.

Berwald glanced down at Tino, who was visibly pale.

"Sorry." He muttered before taking a seat.

"For such a big guy, you sure can sneak around, huh, Sve?"

Sweden gave a small grunt in response.

Tino had recovered from his near heart attack and was trying to catch his breath as he sat back up in his chair.

Valentin took a breath, about to ask something, when the loudspeaker crackled to life.

"Nordic 5, report to Headmaster Rome's office, you are excused from class and training for the rest of the day. Nordic 5, report to Headmaster Rome's office, you are excused from class and training for the rest of the day. "

The Nordic's all looked at each other with an excited spark in their eyes.

"Later!" Mathias cried as he leapt to his feet, his energy magically restored.

Tino scooped up his backpack and stood.

"What do you think it'll be?" He asked, looking enthusiastic.

Valentin looked confused.

"Where are you all going?"

The Nordic's all looked over at him and Lukas stuffed his hands in his pockets as he strode around the table.

"Headmaster Rome called for us and excused us from schoolwork, that means he's got a new job for us to do."

"You guys actually do missions for him?" Valentin looked surprised.

"Uh, yeah. Why else do you think we have teams and mission titles?"

Emil asked, looking at Valentin as if he were stupid before walking off.

Valentin looked after them, waiting until they were gone out of sight, then he let his gaze slide around before he picked up his tray and deposited the leftovers of his lunch into the trash. He glanced up at the clock.

 _I've got about an hour before I've gotta get to the next torture session known as classes in this madhouse._

The romanian shot a friendly smile to a few of the girls who were coming in, Lilli actually blushed and Michelle pounced on her, hugging her from behind and giggling.

Valentin waved to them over his shoulder, his fangs just peaking out, curling his fingers slightly in his wave, before walking out of the hall and heading down the hall.

 _This should do._

He leaned into one of the arcs of the underground hallway, small enclaves into the walls where students would often take between class breaks.

In one fluid motion, he produced Tino's tablet from beneath his overcoat.

The friendly demeanor had been dropped like a mask, and Valentin swiped into the tablet.

 _Tino's a tech expert, I actually suspect him of being the same boy who was held captive in Mr. Morgan's place. Of course, that was before I got hired, and it's not like I care..._

He studied the tablet, before allowing the fingers of his right hand to dance across the screen, testing a few different guesses.

 _What on earth could he have as a ten letter password?_

Valentin tried to think of anything obvious.

 _His teams name is to short, all the members of his team put together is to long..._

Valentin gasped when he had an idea.

 _Only people close to him would know it..._

Glancing down at the screen, he tapped in the word.

 _ **H-A-N-A-T-A-M-A-G-O**_

There was a soft click produced from the tablet and Valentin grinned.

 _Thank you, Mathias._

He thought.

He flicked through the pages and pages of apps and installments. The usual for any teenage boy, games, scanner, a photo booth app. Less usual stuff Valentin couldn't make heads or tails of, but then, he wasn't any sort of impressive techie himself.

Valentin reached a single app that had an image of an eye on it and underneath it said 'Hide and seek'.

Valentin frowned.

 _That sounds like some sort of game, but..._

He made to tap the app.

"Valentin!"

With a startled jump, Valentin retracted his finger from the screen and snapped his head up.

Professor Gojosen stood there.

"You do know you've got world history, right?"

Valentin blinked.

"Uh, yes sir." He said quickly.

"Well you very well can't attend in your mission uniform!"

He plucked the tablet from Valentin's hands, leaving the brown haired boy blinking in ridiculous surprise.

"Get moving! I'll return this to you after classes are over!"

Valentin cursed inside his head, but he clearly couldn't fight the man over the tablet. He'd been cornered and the only way out was to do as he was told.

"Yes, sir! Sorry about that, it totally slipped my mind!"

With this Valentin turned and walked quickly towards his dorms.

"MOVE!"

Valentin jumped and took off running.

 _He is definitely my least favorite teacher._

* * *

 ** _Amethyst: Well, I suppose everyone can stop wondering if Vali's a spy now._**

 ** _Rome: I've got to go stop him!_**

 ** _Amethyst: Sorry, all this information will automatically leave your minds the second you leave. It's like instant memory erase._**

 ** _Yao: Not to mention there's not a door we can get out through, so we're still stuck in here either way, aru._**

 ** _Amethyst: Yeah, it's getting pretty crowded in here, huh?_**

 ** _Lukas: You think? We're already shoulder to shoulder._**

 ** _Kiku: I do not like it in here...to much physical contact._**

 ** _Yao and Yong Soo: *Kiku glomp*_**

 ** _Kiku: I do not understand how this is any better._**

 ** _Yao and Yong Soo: We are your brothers._**

 ** _Kiku: Like I said, I do not understand how that is better._**

 ** _Amethyst: Hang on *Laptop magic commences*_**

 ** _Lukas: You just magicked yourself up a chocolate milkshake._**

 ** _Amethyst: So? *Sips milkshake*_**

 ** _Lukas: Never mind._**

 ** _Alfred: FAV! FOLLOW! REVIEW! ASK FOR THE AUTHOR TO MAKE THE SIGN OFF ROOM BIGGER WE'RE ALL SQUISHED! SERIOUSLY PLEASE I'VE GOT MATHIAS'S ELBOW IN MY STOMACH, GREECE IS ASLEEP ON MY SHOULDER, AND POLAND'S DOING HIS MAKE UP ON MY ARM! HURRY! OK, THANKS DUDES!_**


	8. The tortured soul

_**Super duper long chapter coming up!**_

* * *

 ** _Headmaster Rome's office._**

Gojosen burst straight through the doors, only turning the slam them back shut with equal force, looking furious as he strode straight up to the Headmaster's desk.

"ROMULUS!" He roared.

There was a crash from upstairs and Rome came rumbling out of his apartment door and flew down the stairs.

"What? What's wrong?" Rome asked, looking panicked, his tie was askew and his suit jacket was missing.

Gojosen threw the tablet onto the desk as Rome stood on the opposite side.

"I just caught a certain new student sitting in an enclave in the hall with this."

Rome looked up at Gojosen disappointedly.

"You found Valentin, who is not suppose to be in class for another fifty minutes, on a tablet, and you decided to confiscate it?"

Gojosen snatched the tablet up and turned it, pointing to the background image.

The Nordic 5 in full uniform.

"This is Finland's tablet." He growled.

Rome looked a bit concerned, but still went for the least worrisome answer.

"Tino couldn't have lent it to him?"

Gojosen shook his head.

"That boy doesn't trust anyone with his technology, especially not with his personal tablet. The only people he trusts that much are the other Nordic's, and it's clear that Valentin is not one of them."

Rome nodded, looking even more concerned.

"Hmm...I suppose this could be something more."

"You suppose!?"

Gojosen scowled and crossed his arms.

"Your lucky I didn't drag him up here for stealing another students property!"

Romulus sighed, massaging the bridge of his nose.

"...Chang, you know if you had done that it would have made it even harder to prove or disprove if Valentin has darker motives for being here."

Gojosen's eyes darkened.

"I'm telling you, Romulus, this will only end badly for the academy. This I can promise you."

Rome groaned and crossed his arms.

"Chang, please, you have to think about it from my perspective. I have to think about it from both parties sides."

Rome held up his hands, as if weighing something on a scale.

He raised one hand higher.

"On one hand, if Valentin does turn out to be a spy, as we have suspected, we'll have put him in the lions den, figuratively speaking. He's trapped among his enemies and there's no easy way for him to get out. Surrounded on all sides. Now..."

Rome dropped that hand and rose the other.

"...let's say that Valentin is just the victim of a cruel set up by Carthage."

Gojosen raised an eyebrow skeptically.

"Here me out." Rome said with a lilt of sarcasm.

"You and I remember Carthage. We were classmates. We used to be friends. We'd been on missions together. He's a brilliant strategist. I wouldn't put it past him to try and use a new student he knew we were taking in, if we distrust Valentin, and it turns out that he doesn't even honestly know who Morgan is, past any stories he's been told. We reject him, take a new opportunity away from him, and Carthage could snatch him up right then. He's the heart of all this, Valentin. He's a tricky boy to read. I can't tell if that friendly attitude of his is his real self, or just a facade."

Rome sighed, loosening his tie as he shook his head.

"Now do you see what I'm dealing with?"

Gojosen crossed his arms, nodding, then he glanced down at the tablet again.

He picked up the thing and, with a few swift swipes, changed the password.

"I'll let Tino know I've changed the password later today, I'll give it back to Tino as well, we'll see how Valentin tries to explain himself having it. I'll let Tino know not to act as though he knows his tablet had been blatantly stolen."

Rome nodded, then crossed his arms, frowning and letting out a disgruntled groan.

"...We'll have to play this one carefully."

"Agreed, now, don't you have a history class to teach?"

Rome jumped.

"Oh! Right! And I'm off!"

Rome snatched his suit jacket off of his chair and sprinted out the door.

"It's not good for the students to see their superiors dashing through the halls!"

Gojosen shouted after him.

Rome winked over his shoulder.

"Old friend, you worry to much! It's fine, all it does is prove to them I'm human!"

Gojosen sighed as he glanced down at the tablet, curious.

The short asian man stepped back into the office he'd just talked with his old friend.

"Let's see just what you've been up to, Tino."

Gojosen bypassed the password screen easily and his eyes locked onto the 'hide and seek' icon.

He tapped on it and was surprised when a map of the academy expanded across the screen, and he saw a single blue blip, now making it's way towards the history classroom at a hurried pace.

Gojosen gave a rare grin that no one ever saw.

"Now there's a boy who's been paying attention in class, Tino."

 ** _In the Nordic's van_**

"AH-CHOO!"

Tino doubled over in a sneeze again.

"That's the fourth time in the past five minutes, you coming down with something, pal?"

Mathias asked, looking over at his teammate with concern.

Tino sniffled and wiped his nose on the back of his sleeve.

"No, no, I'm alright! I feel just fine!"

He let out a bubbly laugh.

"I guess someone must be talking about me!"

"Focus! We've got breaking and entering to do!"

Emil cried.

Mathias and Tino both swallowed any more comments guiltily and looked to the youngest, who crossed his arms at them and swiveled back to his work screen, clacking away at his keyboard.

Mathias shrugged and Tino grinned again at him behind Emil's back. Surely nothing could be going on, and they had a mission to accomplish.

 ** _In Professor Gojosen's office, later that night._**

The short asian man glanced up at the knock on the door.

"Professor?" Tino pushed open the door and poked his head in.

The first thing his eyes locked onto was his tablet sitting on the table.

"E-Erm...Headmaster R-Rome said you w-wanted to s-see me?" He stuttered as he edged into the room.

"Oh, good, your back. Come in."

Gojosen's voice was as crisp and to the point as ever, and Tino instantly moved the rest of the way into the office.

Gojosen picked up the tablet and held it out over the table.

"I changed the password." He said.

Tino looked confused.

"Okay, but, why?" Tino asked, then he quickly tacked on a hurried.

"Sir?"

Gojosen sighed.

"I caught Valentin sitting in one of the underground hallways, in one of the enclaves, with it. He'd managed to figure out your password and was looking through your apps. I caught him just before he discovered what you've been using to keep an eye on him."

Tino gasped, a bit of the color draining from his face.

"I didn't even realized it was missing!" Tino took the tablet and entered the password Gojosen had given him and began swiping through it, making sure it's valuable content was secure.

Gojosen nodded stiffly.

"Keep a closer eye on that thing, I can't guarantee that I'll be able to catch Valentin next time he snatches it. He's lucky I didn't pull him into the Headmaster's office for stealing."

Tino nodded so hard he actually bowed.

Gojosen frowned and crossed his arms.

"Now, onto your brilliant little bug. Where exactly did you plant it?"

Tino blinked twice, looking like a deer caught in headlights.

"Well, I, uh, I..." He stuttered and struggled with the answer.

Gojosen gave a wry smile.

"I'm not mad. It's a genius plan, so tell me where you planted that bug."

Tino was now fiddling with the edge of his uniform jacket awkwardly.

"Erm...well...we noticed how Valentin wears this hat that has these white and red ribbons on it. It doesn't match school colors, so we made a new one with red and black ribbons on it and gave it to him as a gift to replace his old one. He really liked it and has started wearing it everywhere. It's got one of the trackers that I built for tracking cars in it. But I made some minor adjustments, and now it'll continually beam out the tracking signal for a while. I don't know exactly when the charge will give out, but it should last for a while. I hope."

Gojosen looked approving of the plan.

"That's some good thinking on your part, Tino. I told you there was no need for you to be so insecure about your part on your team. Your their brain, and no matter how strong, tall, agile, or fast a body is, without a brain?"

He prompted Tino to finish for him.

Tino looked to one side, feeling rather uncomfortable with the conversation.

"It can't do a thing."

"Well technically it would either remain in a vegetable state, with the main organs and veins functioning it would continue to live without any way of becoming an actually conscious, mobile creature. Or it would just die. Either way, you get my point."

"Yes, sir."

Tino was quite eager to get out of there, and he hugged his tablet to his chest, turing to leave.

"It's been almost a year."

His teacher said abruptly.

Tino stiffened and bit his lower lip, casting his eyes downward with his back to the older man.

"Have you ever even told them? Have they never asked?"

Tino didn't respond, he didn't even turn around to face them.

After nearly a minute of frozen, tense silence, the student finally spoke.

"No. They never bothered me about it. A few times whenever I would have nightmares one of them would come in to make sure I was ok. They never once tried to get me to talk to them about it." His voice sounded small, as if he were trying not to be heard.

Gojosen sighed, crossing his arms.

"They want to know. Of course they would want to know. But they care about you, and they don't want to pressure you to talk about it. I don't think that's really set in with you yet, Tino. Your team loves you, each and every one of them does. They'd each switch places with you in a heartbeat to save you the pain that haunts you every night. I can guarantee it."

Tino looked over his shoulder slightly.

"They have enough to worry about, Professor. So do you. So please, don't worry about me."

Tino gave a weak smile as he faced the man once again.

"I'll get by."

"I didn't ask you if you would _get by_."

Gojosen pressed, and Tino's violet eyes instantly darkened slightly and flicked off to some distant corner of the world, where the young geniuses mind would always retreat too during conversations like this.

"Tino, please. You have to speak to them about it eventually. I don't know what to tell you about how to do it, or when, or where. But they deserve to know just why you still wake up screaming in the middle of the night. Why you still come to speak with Iris after all this time."

Tino shook his head.  
"I told Professor Ancient Egypt I didn't need to see her anymore. She wouldn't listen to me and made me keep coming once every two weeks. I've got to meet with her this week, actually."

Tino's eyes didn't come out of their far away corner, and Gojosen feared that that distant place hidden safely within Tino's own mind was the only place he truly felt safe now.

Gojosen let out another frustrated breath.

"I clearly cannot force you to tell them about what happened during that time. But, as your Professor, and an adult that has influence on your life, I can strongly suggest that you do talk to them about it. Whatever _it_ is, considering you've told no one. Not even any of us Professors, or the Headmaster himself. It will only make them understand it more, and you'll be able to work past it."

Tino's grip on his tablet was so tight it was turning his knuckles white.

He opened his mouth but nothing came out.

Gojosen looked at him with concern, unable to think anything more to say that would help Tino to decide.

"I don't want them to think I'm weak."

His voice was as small as before, fear evident in his speech.

Gojosen shook his head, letting out a tired groan.

"As I said before, I cannot force you to do anything. I just hope that you will understand that they will never think of you was weak. You are very strong, and I don't want you to ever believe whatever it was that Carthage told you to make you feel like this."

"Thanks...I've gotta go now, I'm meeting everyone for dinner."

Tino escaped the room like a frightened mouse, darting through the crack of the door and off down the hallway.

He ran into Valentin on the way.

"Oh! There you are, Tino."

"Hiya!"

The cheerful smile was back within an instant, as if all the gloom and solemnness of the minutes he'd spent in the office were gone, packed neatly away to be grieved over another time.

Valentin appeared as though he'd been running.

"I wanted to tell you, Professor Gojosen took your tablet from me, I found it lying on the floor of the mess hall and he just snatched it up!"

Tino nodded, of course he trusted Gojosen far more then he would ever trust the romanian now in front of him, but being the person he was, he would always give the benefit of the doubt.

"Really? Wow, I didn't even notice it come out of my bag! Glad it didn't break."

Valentin scratched the back of his head in an apologetic way.

"I actually think it was from when I bumped into it when me and Mathias joined you at the table, the zipper was open and the tablet must've fallen out. I didn't notice, but I saw it after you all left."

Tino shrugged with a sparkle in his violet eyes.

"No harm done!"

He said, giving a cheerful laugh that no one could ever have said was forced.

Valentin looked relived that he had been forgiven so easily.

"Thanks, I'll be sure not to mess with your tablet ever again. I was just sitting and holding it and Professor Gojosen came over and nearly took me in for stealing it!"

Tino didn't show anything but amusement at the supposed mishap.

"Well, c'mon, Valentin, let's head off to dinner! How was your History Class? I may not be very good with history, but it's one of my favorite classes, just because Headmaster teaches it."

Valentin looked down at him confusedly as they walked along. Valentin was wearing the official high collared jacket and red trimmed pants. Tino on the other hand donned his dress shirt, vest, and combat boots since he had just returned from his latest mission.

Valentin shrugged.

"It was okay. The two asian boys who look alike were trying to pass off as each other, and the two younger kids who were in the class were asking all sorts of questions when I could barely keep up."

"Hyung Soo and Yong Soo were at it again, hmm? Normally Lukas, Mathias, and I are in that class, but today we were off doing other things."

Valentin nodded and Tino continued as they walked into the mess hall.

"Peter and Wisteria are both two of the young recruits that came in a few months back. They're both so smart, I'm so glad they've been able to integrate into the academy alright."

Tino nodded and the two of them entered the mess hall, the usual mess of chaotic screams and bubbling laughter met them.

Tino's violet eyes sparkled, and he looked ahead, standing at his full height with an ever welcoming and friendly smile on his face, causing everyone around him to laugh a little louder and smile a little wider.

 _I'll be fine._

Tino looked around the mess hall at all of his friends, comrades, and schoolmates.

 _I've got everyone around me, there's no reason for me to be afraid. I shouldn't be scared anymore. I'm safe. I'm where I belong. No one needs to worry, when I don't need any help. I want everyone to be happy, it wouldn't matter to me if I was dying on the inside or feeling as good as I've ever felt. I'll be ok...I'll be ok._

"Hey Tino, c'mon over, let's eat!" Mathias shouted, waving.

"Kay!"

Tino pranced over to the table.

Alfred laughed loudly.

"Your just as chipper as usual!"

Tino had that bright smile plastered across his face, so none around him could see the tortured soul hidden inside.

"Of course! I always am!"

* * *

 _ **Amethyst: Tino! I'm so sorry you're secretly depressed and traumatized!**_

 _ **Tino: That's ok. I'll be ok.**_

 _ **Amethyst: I didn't ask if you were OK!**_

 _ **Tino: I'm sorry!**_

 _ **Alfred: Didn't people tell you? Expand this stupid room!**_

 _ **Amethyst: Well half the reviews said something along the lines of "Poor Alfie, you should expand the room."  
**_

 _ **Alfred: Love you, readers!**_

 _ **Amethyst: The other half said something along the lines of "Let them suffer, it brings me much amusement"**_

 _ **Alfred: What kind of fan base is this?**_

 _ **Amethyst: Yours. Congratulations, half your fans are sweet, caring, fluffy people, the other half fine it more entertaining when you're in pain.**_

 _ **Alfred: WHY!? Why are all you readers so completely opposite!**_

 _ **Mathias: Seriously, please make it bigger!**_

 _ **Amethyst: Fine.**_

 ** _Everyone: YES!_**

 ** _Amethyst: If Li will do an enthusiastic sign off._**

 ** _Everyone: WE'RE SCREWED!_**

 ** _Li: ...ok, here goes nothing. *Takes deep breath* FAVORITE! FOLLOW! FIREWORKS! *unleashes fireworks* REVIEW!_**

 ** _Everyone: AHHHHHH! *Panic ensues*_**

 ** _Amethyst: And that just made things worse. This is why I love the sign off room. So much wonderful chaos. *Dodges stray firework* Bye guys! Thanks for reading!_**


	9. Coldhearted

**_Heres the newest chapter, enjoy!_**

* * *

 ** _Several weeks later._**

Lukas sat down in the chair in front of Headmaster Rome's desk.

Rome let out a tired sigh.

"Let me guess, nothing?"

Lukas nodded, a look bordering on apologetic on his face, as if he wished he'd been able to dredge something up and had failed.

"Ever since that incident with Tino's tablet, he's done nothing but wake up early, be on time for everything in the appropriate uniform, make bad jokes, and study like there's no tomorrow."

Rome groaned and rubbed his temples.

"This is ridiculous. That's it!"

Rome threw his arms into the air.

"Almost a month without a single move! I'm calling it! If he can survive one more week without doing anything your relived from your mission. He's been basically a golden student! Right now, I'm actually starting to accept his explanation that Tino's tablet just fell out of his bag and curiosity got the better of him so he started to look at it! That's rude, sure, but it's definitely not on the grounds of being a spy. Just...resume as usual until I next call you, alright, Lukas?"

"Yes sir."

The Norwegian nodded and came to a stand.

"I'll tell Tino that he needs to be careful with his tracker for a while longer."

"Thank you."

Lukas nodded once more and then stood to leave, just as Professor Ancient Egypt came walking in. She had shimmering long jet black hair, smooth, evenly tanned skin, and striking green eyes.

Her eyes had pointed eyeliner and she was wearing large golden hoop earrings. Her eyes were narrowed and she had her hand on her hip. She wore a simple black dress with a very high collar that was laced with red, it was tight around her waist with a high red belt, and the skirt swished out all the way down to nearly her ankles. The dress was sleeveless and the collar was the main thing holding it up.

She raised an eyebrow slightly at Lukas.

"Norway." She greeted.

Lukas instantly took this to mean she wanted him out sooner rather then later.

"Professor." Lukas responded before leaving without another word, shutting the sound blocking door securely behind him. It was nearly impossible for students to eavesdrop, which could be expected in a school that was training spies and budding geniuses.

Iris strode up to Rome's desk and slammed both palms down on the table, leaning over it slightly.

"What?" Romulus asked calmly whilst he tucked his reading glasses into his chest pocket.

Iris took a breath but Rome cut her off.

"If this is about Valentin, I've already said, he's done nothing but be a great student. In fact, Helena came in here a week ago and Chang at least five times in the past month! You know I trust Ancient Greece as well, but my standing is just..."

Iris gave a low sound that was almost a growl, and Rome quieted.

"It's about Tino." She said.

Romulus's face became grave.

"Did something happen to him?"

Iris shook her head slowly.

"Something happened to him almost a year ago, and it's still wearing on his mind."

Romulus's look of concern increased.

"Go on."  
Iris didn't seem to want to sit, so she began to pace, and her anxiety even caused Romulus to rise to his feet.

"He won't talk to me. Any question I ask he merely replies by saying 'I'm fine' or 'Don't worry about me' he's to smart for his own good. I can't get him to give up anything through underhanded means. What happened to him that caused him to be so closed off about that time that he was separated from us. I still don't know. No one knows. The closest idea we have is what Emil saw when he rescued Tino from that cell."

Iris tapped a manicured nail on her chin.

"I want to help him. But he won't let me. He's convinced that if he just puts up the facade that he's the same as he's always been, he'll somehow just forget it. I don't think he understands that the longer he hides it, the harder it will wear on him. I had to cave in and ask Berwald in the hallway if Tino still has nightmares. The answer, at least twice a week. Most of the time Berwald gets up to check on him. Tino cracks the door open, says he's fine, and tells Berwald to go back to sleep. I..."

Iris trailed off, massaging her brow.

"I just don't know what to do for him. I just don't know what to do."

Romulus shook his head.

"Iris, the boy is used to supporting himself. Don't stress to try and get him to open up, there's a lot more inside Tino's mind then a lot of people believe."

With a soft nod, Iris crossed her arms, a sigh escaping her black lipstick coated lips, blowing up her silky, long black bangs. Her hair streamed down her back to nearly tickle the backs of her knees.

"I suppose that is true. He isn't the transparent little hyperactive ball of sunshine everyone thinks he is."

Romulus let himself settle back into his seat after a few moments.

"I'll talk to him next chance I get, Iris. You go do your thing, you've got architecture to teach, right?"

Iris's green eyes twinkled.

"I've still got about twenty minutes...now I want to discuss our other headache."

Rome groaned loudly.

"Iris, I started out with this, I've got no other choices but to just observe. It's a literal gridlock between Morgan Enterprise and us!"

This was the sort of frustration that Rome would never reveal in front of his students. To them, a mild sigh of concern equaled and internal panic attack going on in their superiors mind.

Iris chose now to settle into the chair opposite her old friend. It was true a lot of the professors currently at the academy had once been students and best friends. The best friends part hadn't changed.

"What do you suggest, oh amazing Headmaster?"

"You're not helping."

Iris gave a soft humored hum and returned to her feet, striding around the desk, her black high heeled ankle boots clicking, she reached the headmaster's side and put an arm around him in a one sided hug.

That was about as close to showing physical affection or support that the egyptian ever got.

"Don't forget you're a genius too, even if you don't always act like it."

Rome sighed as Iris retracted her arm and started walking towards the door.

"Thanks, Iris."

"Anytime."

 ** _Later that day, after classes._**

Lukas found himself pacing the back halls again, his mind was running quickly. He couldn't decide how he felt about Valentin. On one hand he'd become something of a...pleasant acquaintance. With his bad puns and cheerful smile. But for all Lukas new, these could all be a part of a script, a simple facade, as easy to put on and off as Lukas could a smile, a frown, a scream, or terrified tears.

He was cut off from these thoughts by a voice calling out.

"Hey, Lukas!"

He glanced back and saw Valentin running up the hall towards him.

"I was looking for you, you weren't at lunch with the others."

Lukas shrugged.

"I had something to do."

 _No way I'll tell him about the Headmaster asking to speak with me, he already thinks it's strange how often the Nordic 5 get's called compared to other teams._

Valentin flashed a smile.

"Alright! Well, what are you doing all the way back here? Took me forever to find you."

Lukas responded with silence as he continued off, hoping Valentin would get the message that he wanted to be alone.

Valentin didn't leave.

"You're always so quiet. Not like Berwald type quiet, or your brother. It's like you've got a lot to say, but you're scared to say it."

Lukas was appalled by that idea. Scared to speak his mind? Since when had he been like that? It was quite obvious, at least to him, that he was rather fine with saying what he thought.

Valentin had a very honest expression on his face, as if should a single lie leave his mouth, he would break down into laughter or another obvious sign.

Lukas was running all this through his mind, but on the outside he merely loosely crossed his arms and gave Valentin an appraising look.

"What makes you say that?"

He continued his pace down the hallway at a slightly increased speed, Valentin yet again ran to catch up.

"I know I haven't been here long. I also know that not very many people know you well. Everyone seems to think all you care about is your teams success rate, your grades, and your times. All cold and calculating."

Lukas stopped in the hall abruptly and his eyes grazed over the archways letting light pour into the open stone hall.

 _This is the same place I forgave Emil over a year ago..._

He recalled, but this memory was quickly brushed aside in favor of observing Valentin.

"So what if that _is_ all I am? What difference does it make to you?"

Valentin chuckled lightly, an action that caused Lukas to raise an eyebrow slightly.

"Because I can tell you're a lot deeper then that. Some people wear their hearts on their sleeves."

Valentin coughed half heartedly and Lukas didn't bother to acknowledge the way the name 'Mathias' seemed to work it's way into the noise.

"I just think you've got a lot more too you, is all."

Lukas rolled his eyes.  
"If you've got enough time to worry about my inner functions, you're not studying hard enough." He pointed out.

Valentin snapped his fingers.

"There it is! Exactly what I mean! What is there for you other then studying and training? The moment I bring this up all I get is a harsh rebuffing! I know you've got the Nordic's, but do you have any others outside of that? I mean, Tino's friends with just about everyone. Mathias is friends with Alfred and Gilbert, right? Emil hangs out with Li and Michelle all the time. Berwald is even friends with Ivan! But what about you?"

Lukas was mystified by what Valentin was saying. Friends? He had plenty of those, right?

 _But, the only reason any of them would say that they are friends with me is because I'm one of the Nordics..._

Lukas gave him a sideways look.

"Maybe I don't need anyone else." He said a bit to sharply then necessary.

Valentin groaned and rubbed the back of his head in annoyance.

"Everyone needs friends. You've gotta know that, right?"

Lukas shook his head and turned, walking off.

"Hey!" Valentin shouted, but Lukas didn't turn back, just kept moving towards the entry to the building on the other side, his form silhouetted by the open archways of light.

"For what it's worth..."  
Lukas did not slow his stride.

"You're probably the first friend I've ever made in my life."

Lukas stopped like he'd just hit a wall.

 _I don't like being around others. I don't enjoy talking. When I smile people think it's creepy and that I'm plotting something. I've always got another angle to them, it's never just because I want to be happy. But Valentin. Everyone likes him. He's charming, he's respectful, he's happy, and his smile doesn't make anyone think that he's got an ulterior motive. Why can't I just be more like him? How could I of all people be the first friend he's ever made?_

"I don't know if that sounds weird, or cheesy or something. But it's true. Ever since I've come here you've been there for me, and then after that I met so many other amazing people. I want to know why you always cut yourself off."

Lukas let out a breath, shaking his head again, still not facing Valentin.

"I don't understand why everyone cares so much about this stuff. Friends. Comrades. Schoolmates. Teammates. Allies. Whats the difference?"

"There's a big difference. I just don't think you can see it yet, but it's the difference that made you go after Tino, instead of just leaving him for dead."

Lukas stilled for the second time, fisting his hands.

He walked briskly the rest of the way to the exit, leaving Valentin looking after him with a very disappointed, and slightly concerned, expression.

* * *

 ** _Amethyst: Love you Layla!_**

 ** _Mathias: We don't have a student named Layla. Are you bringing in someone new?_**

 ** _Amethyst: Nah, she's a guest reviewer._**

 ** _Mathias: And why do you love her?_**

 ** _Amethyst: Because she gave me a good idea._**

 ** _Alfred: Everybody duck!_**

 ** _*Everyone in the room drops to the floor and takes cover, only to land on each other because the room is so small*_**

 ** _Amethyst: *Laptop magic commences*_**

 ** _*Sign off room expands*_**

 ** _Alfred: THANK YOU! FREEDOM! IT IS MY MIDDLE NAME! *Runs around the room*_**

 ** _Amethyst: And now..._**

 ** _*Door opens*_**

 ** _Yao: I thought we didn't have a door, aru..._**

 ** _*Micro nations flood in, followed by East Germans and East Asia and all the solo students and...well, pretty much the entire rest of the academy plus staff*_**

 ** _Alfred: NO! *Catches flying Kugelmugel*_**

 ** _Kaiser: Not art! *Grabs Alfred in fear*_**

 ** _Amethyst: I expanded the sign off room!_**

 ** _Alfred: But we're still crammed in here because you pulled in like fifty more people! Stop being manipulative!_**

 ** _Amethyst: Sorry...guess it's in my nature! Hey, throw me Kaiser!_**

 ** _Alfred: *Throws Kugelmugel*_**

 ** _Amethyst: *Catches Kugelmugel* Do the thing!_**

 ** _Kaiser: Favorite for our art and follow our art and review about our art! *Waves*_**


	10. Exposure

**_Heres the newest chapter, enjoy!_**

* * *

 ** _That night, the Nordic's base._**

Lukas rolled over in his bed and stared at the plain white wall of his dorm room.

He could just barely hear Mathias snoring on the other side of it, and almost wished he had the ability release his grip on reality so easily. It was true that Lukas had difficultly with falling asleep and waking up.

Once he managed to go to sleep, it took someone literally blowing an air horn in his ear to wake him. Normally he managed to awake from slumber by the time the morning announcements finished on the speaker in the corner of his room. Lukas rolled onto his back, hearing a soft thud, which notified him that his stuffed fish had just fallen out of his bed and onto the ground.

 _There's no point in this..._

He thought frustratedly, sitting up and putting a hand to his head. His bangs hung low into his face, nearly covering his eyes completely.

The nordic groped over to his bedside table and clicked on the lamp, rubbing his eyes tiredly. He glanced over to the electric clock that rested on his desk.

 _2:30 AM? You've got to be kidding me..._

With a large yawn, Lukas got out of bed and grabbed a tee shirt from his dresser, throwing it over his head. Barefooted in pajama pants and now some old fundraiser tee shirt he'd probably gotten for free at some carnival Mathias had dragged him too, Lukas shuffled to his door and pulled it open. All the Nordic's had pooled their money to buy a mini fridge for their base, so that their nighttime cravings, which happened surprisingly a lot with this team, could be satisfied.

He opened the fridge and pulled out a bottle of water, cracking it open and taking a deep draught.

He wandered back towards the ladder after shutting the door to the fridge with his foot, he passed by Tino's workbench and realized that the finnish boy had left his tablet on it.

 _Never learns does he?_

Recalling his discussion with Headmaster Rome, Lukas figured he may as well check up on Valentin.

 _He's in his room, fast asleep, ready to be up fifteen minutes before anyone else and all bright and chipper for breakfast and the first class of the day._

Lukas thought regrettably, wishing he could join the romanian and his danish teammate in dreamland.

He picked up the tablet and swiped into it, accessing the 'Hide and seek' app.

Lukas let out a soft breath of surprise when he saw the blue blip appear on the western stairwell.

He dropped the tablet to the worktable and ran to the ladder, shooting up it and into his room, snatching his mission uniform up from where it lay, perfectly folding, on his dresser.

In less then two minutes he was ready for action.

As he exited his bedroom he was already thinking with a shocked mind.

 _Why would he be on the stairwell, that leads up too..._

 ** _On the roof beneath the twin spires of Hetalia Academy._**

Lukas arrived at the top of the stairwell to find the door cracked slightly ajar.

His senses seemed to kick into overdrive, and he heard the soft tapping of a pair of shoes on the rooftop.

Lukas leaned and looked out, his violet eyes looking confused in the moonlight that managed to give the entire rooftop a strong amount of light.

Valentin was there.

The ribbons on his hat that had notified Lukas of his presence were being tousled around by the wind, along with his light brown hair. Valentin had a simple flip phone to his ear and was pacing, his free hand was swinging at his side, fisting and relaxing. He was clearly anxious to get this call over with.

Before Lukas could consider confronting him, Valentin must have gotten a voice from the other end of the line, for he began to speak.

"Mr. Morgan? Can you hear me?"

The world stopped.

The stars darkened.

The moon dimmed.

A soft smirk fell across Valentin's face, his scarlet eyes took on a look of supreme victory, as if he'd just pulled the most marvelous of tricks, and not a single person had caught him. The wind teased it's fingers through his brown hair and the moonlight glinted off of his fangs.

"No, sir, not yet. They've no clue I'm only in this school for you."

Lukas could hear his heart pounding, Headmaster Rome was right.

Valentin was a spy.

Lukas fought the urge to fling the door open and confront him, he had to listen to this conversation.

 _Valentin is not my friend. Even if once I hoped we might become so, I'll protect this academy to my last breath. I swear it._

Lukas turned his attention back on what Valentin was saying.

"Have I discovered anything of use? No, sir. My movements are rather restricted. It seems to be the same for all of the other students as well. What with such short time between classes, and your expected to change uniforms depending on if your going aboveground or below ground. There's also a curfew so unless you get permission from a teacher it's next to impossible to get anywhere good. Even on the weekends, it seems theres always someone there in my way, be it a student, a teacher, or Rome himself."

Lukas strained his hearing, desperate to pick up Morgan's side of the conversation.

"I've been basically babysat by the group known as the Nordic 5."

A short pause.

"Yes, they do include Finland."

Lukas wanted so badly to just run out and punch him for even thinking about ever harming Finland again, although it was not guaranteed that he was planning that, and certainly Valentin hadn't been directly involved, or Tino would have recognized him instantly.

Valentin then took on a dubious look, and repeated the question he had been asked, much to Lukas's relief.

"Have I come to care about any of them?"

Lukas saw, clear as day, the uncertain look on the romanians face, he hesitated, as if the answer in his mind was different then the one he was about to speak, but his voice was firm.

"No, sir. Certainly not. I've no reason to become attached to anyone here. I'll be gone soon anyway."

Lukas gritted his teeth.

 _What was all that he was spouting out earlier about me being his first friend? Such a fool I am, I actually listened. I actually started to care about a spy that would destroy my home. I actually thought that maybe he and I could be friends after this. That I could tell him the accusations after he'd been cleared and he would flash that stupid fanged grin of his and say something equally stupid before he laughed it all off._

"I don't quite know just when I'll be able to move around more, granted, I have to admit that it seems I'm being watched a lot more closely then other students, but since I'm the newest student here it could simply be protocol. I wouldn't be able to properly gauge this unless another student was brought in, then I would see if I were free to move a bit more while the new kid would be under inspection."

Lukas's ears strained at the silents, reaching for more information he could carefully commit to memory.

A few more affirmed answers.

"Yes, sir. Yes, sir. Yes, sir."

Then Valentin let out a soft breath.

"No, I won't fail you. Goodbye."

Valentin snapped the simple flip phone shut and tucked it into his pocket before looking up at the stars.

"How did I get myself into this..." He murmured.

Lukas couldn't hold himself back any longer.

"You should be thinking about how to get yourself out." He nearly growled kicking the door open and stalking onto the rooftop.

Valentin would have gone pale if he weren't already white as a sheet. He jumped a good two feet and put a hand to his heart.

"My god, Lukas, you scared me..."

Lukas narrowed his eyes.

Valentin gave an innocent laugh.

"What, is coming up for a breath of fresh air against one of the rules you forgot to tell me?"

"Don't try to play this off, spy."

Valentin stared at him for several long moments, and Lukas saw the dawning in his eyes that he'd been revealed.

He instantly tried to play dumb.

"What are you talking about? I came up for some air and a good view." He gestured out to the glittering city visible from their perched way up high, separated by forests and a single winding road from the academy.

"You came up here for a little chat with Mr. Morgan. I heard ever word. You're a spy, and a traitor."

Lukas's voice was low and he seemed to be struggling not to do anything rash.

Valentin swallowed hard.

"Sorry, but I really..."

Lukas stepped back into the doorway and slammed his palm down on a fire alarm that was placed there.

"Game over, Valentin. You lost."

He said as a siren began to wail at timed intervals and lights instantly started coming on everywhere, the hallway lights were switched on automatically, and Valentin looked like a deer caught in headlights.

Lukas turned to the speaker and barked.

"Attention everyone, this is Norway of the Nordic 5. It is confirmed, Valentin Popescu, codenamed Romania, is a spy for Morgan! Repeat, Valentin is a spy!" He quieted his voice and looked back at the now on defense romanian, clearly he was going to try and fight his way out of this.

"Headmaster Rome was right. Valentin _is_ a spy."

* * *

 _ **Amethyst: Well, there you go.**_

 ** _Rome: WE NEED TO GET OUT THERE!_**

 ** _Amethyst: Sorry, no door, remember?_**

 ** _Yao: There was one in the last chapter, aru._**

 ** _Amethyst: Well now it's gone! Deal with it!_**

 ** _Rome: This is ridiculous! There is a spy in the academy and we can't get to him!_**

 ** _Amethyst: Well I don't know what you want me to do about it!_**

 ** _Rome: That's it! I'm going to the other end of the sign off room! *Slogs away through the giant amount of students and staff*_**

 ** _Amethyst: *Looks behind her* He's gone._**

 ** _Valentin: *Kneeling behind Amethyst hiding* Thanks...I can't control anything going on in the chapters until they already happen, remember? Now I can remember taking the job from Morgan! But I only did it for my..._**

 ** _Amethyst: *Slaps hand over his mouth* NO SPOILERS!_**

 ** _Romeo: Ciao! Dunno why, but I feel like doing this sign off thing! So favorite, follow, and review! *Waves*_**


	11. Capture

**_Back on the rooftop with Valentin and Lukas, please enjoy the next chapter!_**

* * *

Lukas stepped back into the doorway and slammed his palm down on a fire alarm that was placed there.

"Game over, Valentin. You lost."

He said as a siren began to wail at timed intervals and lights instantly started coming on everywhere, the hallway lights were switched on automatically, and Valentin looked like a deer caught in headlights.

Lukas turned to the speaker and barked.

"Attention everyone, this is Norway of the Nordic 5. It is confirmed, Valentin Popescu, codenamed Romania, is a spy for Morgan! Repeat, Valentin is a spy!" He quieted his voice and looked back at the now on defense romanian, clearly he was going to try and fight his way out of this.

"Headmaster Rome was right. Valentin _is_ a spy."

Valentin looked shocked.

"He knew!?" He demanded.

Lukas nodded stiffly, no further words.

The speaker arose into noise yet again, although this time it wasn't Lukas's voice.

"Everyone, this is Headmaster Rome. I want you all in full mission uniform prepared for a fight! We are on high alert, this is not a drill! Everyone prepare for combat! Capture Valentin at all costs!"

Valentin stepped back, all at once frightened of the prospect that he was caught against unbeatable odds.

He turned and ran, taking off for the opposite stairwell.

Lukas shot after him, his boots pounding on the cement.

Valentin jumped full flights of stairs on his way down, bursting back into the building. He could hear the literal rumble of footsteps all around him, the academy was coming alive with over one hundred foes for him to fight. Among them were some of the best combat fighters of two generations.

Valentin dove around a corner and continued running, aiming to make it down to the second level, from there he could jump from a window and lose himself in the forest. Lukas was making this next to impossible, for he was right behind him at every turn.

Abruptly, the brown haired romanian dove into a nearby classroom, hiding behind the door.

He slowed his breath as quickly as he could, lungs burning, his heart was hammering and he could hear the blood rushing through him in his ears. He pressed his back against the wall, the opened door was two inches from his face.

The pounding of footsteps came and went in a lightning quick instant.

Lukas had gone racing by, assuming he'd turned the next corner.

Valentin crept out the door and made his way as silently as possible for the stairwell he and Lukas had just thundered down.

He came face to face with a brown haired, tanned girl with two bright red bows in her hair, holding it in pigtails. She wore an off the shoulder black dress with a thick red belt that had several concealed weapons on it. There were straps over her shoulders to hold her dress from falling down. The hetalia academy emblem was embroidered on her lapel. Her mellow golden eyes went wide and a short gasp escaped her as she darted a few feet away from him.

Michelle, of the island of Seychelles, a relatively new recruit, being just before Emil.

The girl dropped into offensive stance at the sight of Valentin, she wore ankle boots that clicked when her heels hit the black wooden floor.

"You!" She cried out, swinging up a roundhouse kick that Valentin narrowly dodged.

Valentin shot a quick punch into Michelle's stomach, and she doubled over slightly before springing up and punching him squarely across the face, making him see black spots.

Knowing she had the advantage, Michelle brought about her entire body and her foot snapped upwards, she kicked Valentin and he stumbled to the side before shaking his head and making a run for it down the opposite hall.

 _I can't risk getting caught in one place too long. If I do, I'll be simply surrounded as all the others converge on my location._

He could hear Michelle giving chase behind him, and he had just turned a corner when he was stopped in his tracks.

"Got you."

He was staring down the barrel of a loading gun.

Literally.

Lilli was there, her rifle aimed directly between Valentin's eyes.

She had a murderous look in her eyes and her finger was loosely resting inside the trigger. She wore her official mission uniform, matching with her older brother, and at that moment Valentin swore that the sweet, shy, frankly adorable girl he remembered was a totally different person then the hardened sniper in front of him.

With a gun.

Oh yes.

He couldn't forget the gun.

Before any moves could be made from either party, Michelle caught up.

Valentin was totally exposed, unable to make any quick movements due to the barrel he was facing down.

A single strong chop was all it took. Scarlet eyes rolled upward, Lilli swept her rifle up, over her shoulder, and into it's strap as the boy once codenamed Romania fell limply to the floor.

"Nice, Lilli!" Michelle cheered, high five-ing her over the unconscious body on the floor.

"Thanks!" Lilli exclaimed, returning the high five.

Seychelles then looked down at Valentin.

Very knocked out, very captured, and very tall and heavy.

Michelle sighed.

"Let's call your team."

She suggested.

Lilli nodded.

"Good idea."

 ** _The infirmary._**

"So you two apprehended him?"

Rome asked, looking genuinely impressed.

"Yup!" Michelle chirped while Lilli nodded.

Rome gave the two of them an approving nod.  
"Good. Thank you, dismissed."  
"Yes, sir."

The girls filed from the infirmary, where Vash, Roderich, and Gilbert, who had arrived on the scene not long after Valentin had been knocked out, had carried the romanian.

Rome turned around and looked scornfully down on Valentin.

"He's black and blue, but no serious injuries."

Professor Ancient Greece, named Helena, reported.

Rome bobbed his head.

Helena looked down at Valentin. Normally she would have been worried about how pale he was, but seeing as that was his everyday complexion, she did not. His breathing was regular and his face was blissfully ignorant to the situation he'd gotten himself into.

"So...what now?"

Romulus looked over at the woman who had asked this question. Helena crossed her arms and looked back at him, her deep pools of chocolate brown eyeing him for further instruction.

Rome scratched the back of his head.

"I'd say take him down to the holding cells on the eighth level..."

Helena raised an eyebrow.

"But?"

"But I don't think that would be the right move, up here it's easier to keep an eye on him, and besides. He's a kid. We can't treat him like that no matter how badly I want to throw him in the dark and snap the key in half."

Helena looked at him with concern clear on her face, framed by chocolate brown wavy curls.

"We've got to be very careful with how we proceed. I want to know everything I can about Morgan's plot. Why would he send in a spy if he wasn't planning something?"

Helena glanced back down at Valentin, who was still totally blacked out.

"He's not bad. He could grow into what Morgan has become. But you could stop that. You could save him."

Rome threw his arms into the air in a sudden burst of anger.

"I _tried!"_ He exclaimed.

"I gave him the chance! I could have left him over in Romania but I decided to bring him in anyway! Even though I suspected he worked for Morgan. I still brought him. I still gave him a chance to prove me wrong. After seeing how hard he worked and seeing how much he wanted to learn, I _wanted_ him to prove me wrong! I mean, why couldn't he just toss that stupid cell phone off the roof and decide he wanted to stay here? He could have even come to me and told me he was sent by Morgan and give me the phone, I would have forgiven him!"

Helena placed a calming hand on Romulus's shoulder.

"What's done is done. I just don't want you to act to rashly."

Rome gave her a very intense look, his golden eyes were an open book.

"Any threat to this academy is not to be treated lightly. Tell the kids they can go back to sleep. Crisis averted, and..."

Rome massaged his temples as he walked from the infirmary.  
"Tell them schools out tomorrow. We've got to much to be worried about to be teaching classes."

Helena nodded slowly as the italian man left the room, leaving the door ajar behind him.

"Yes, sir."

She whispered almost to herself before walking out, shutting and locking the door behind her.

* * *

 _ **Michelle: HA HA! TAKE THAT! See!? Look at me and how I helped take down the spy! I'm important too! I can fight and do cool stuff! I want to know why so many people in the fandom hate me!**_

 _ **Amethyst: It's because in the all the academy sims you're the new girl that gets attention from the entire G8, plus pretty much all the other characters everyone loves. They're jealous.**_

 _ **Michelle: Hmph! *Crosses arms* I don't see why, they're all super annoying.**_

 ** _Francis: Non! I am like your big brother, oui!?_**

 ** _Michelle: Perhaps this is because you insisted on following me around the academy like some sort of stalker my first month here._**

 ** _Francis: I was trying to protect you!_**

 ** _Michelle: From who? Italy?  
_**

 ** _Feliciano: Ve~ What's this about me?_**

 ** _Amethyst: Can you guys have your dumb argument somewhere else?_**

 ** _Francis: Actually, non. We're kind of all wedged in here, it is a very small room for so many people, don't you agree?_**

 ** _Amethyst: Eh._**

 ** _Michelle: What does that mean?_**

 ** _Amethyst: That I don't care. Francy pants!_**

 ** _Francis: Oui, I am doing it. All of you readers who are reading our tres bien adventures here, please favorite, follow, and review! I will send all of you roses to show my love and appreciation! Merci!_**


	12. Deceitful truths

_**Here's the next chapter of Call me Magic, please enjoy!**_

* * *

 ** _In the mess hall._**

Lukas yawned as he rubbed his eyes.

He looked over at the clock.

 _4:30...two hours. It's only been two hours..._

Even though the teachers had told them to go to sleep, most of the students were up and in the mess hall. Lilli and Michelle were garnering sudden attention from their capture of the spy who had been amongst them. Everyone had questions, and everyone wanted answers. They were all confused and angry. Especially the people who had come to start thinking of Valentin as one of the group. One of their family. He betrayed them so suddenly, but it wasn't really betrayal.

After all, it was impossible to betray someone you had never been loyal to in the first place.

The bitterness was blatantly evident amongst everyone, but no one felt it more then Lukas. No one hid it better then Lukas either. He was seated in one of the comfortable dark brown suede armchairs towards the corner of the mess hall. The mess hall was large and perfectly circular, it was the hub of the academy. The walls were open to show the kitchens beyond along with rows and rows of food to meet the picky eaters of over one hundred different nationalities. Everyone was seated currently at one of the high tables, in high silvery metal chairs. A few people were snacking or sipping at a soda in an attempt to stay awake, but most were discussing the recent shock of Valentin's unmasking.

"I never would have thought..."

"He was always so happy..."

"I never really talked to him but he seemed to be so nice..."

"I really liked him..."

"I don't know what will happen to him now..."

Lukas wished dearly to block all of this from his mind, but it was impossible to keep out everyones chatter. He himself was trying to figure out just how to feel himself.

 _I wanted to be his friend. I wanted him to be someone I had outside the Nordics. I've got no one BUT the Nordic's. I'm not good with other people. They don't realize that I'm not just all sharp remarks and cold glances. But somehow, even though it wasn't his business, or even his mission here as an infiltrator, Valentin noticed. And, well, at least he pretended he cared._

Lukas let out a sigh and put his head down to lean on one of his hands, which was propped up on the armrest.

For that moment, everything was peaceful.

Then Lukas abruptly stood and strode from the mess hall, taking large steps, hands tightly fisted, and eyes fixated firmly on the floor.

None dared to follow him.

He doubted any even noticed he'd left.

 ** _The infirmary._**

Lukas encountered Professor Ancient Greece just outside the door of the infirmary, locking it tightly.

"Professor." He greeted, coming to a stop in front of the door, right beside her.

"Oh, hello there Lukas. Is something wrong?" She asked.

Lukas felt the urge to cross his arms, but didn't want to come off as standoffish, so he resisted.

"I wanted to know how he was." Lukas tilted his head towards the door in indication.

The older woman nodded.

"He's fine. He got clocked in the head by Seychelles and she landed quite a few good hits on him so he'll be sore in the morning. But there's nothing broken. Nothing torn."

Lukas gave no indication of whether or not he was relieved by the words.

He himself was wondering if it was right that he was, indeed, relieved.

Helena smiled warmly and put a hand on Lukas's shoulder, he was a few inches taller then her, she was looking slightly up.

"No matter how you feel, we have to do what is right for our academy. What will protect us all."

Lukas looked down at her with surprise just barely visible in his blank violet eyes.

A soft hum emitted from Helena's throat.

"Your so cold, you know that?"

Lukas looked uncomfortably to the side, why hadn't his teacher removed her hand from his shoulder yet?

"Yes. Valentin was the one who pointed it out to me. I never thought it was a bad thing before. Now that idiot made me start to think."

Helena's laugh was like a spring breeze, soft and warm.

"Now, now, I never said it was a bad thing. As for whether or not taking advice from a spy is a good idea, I'd say...just do what you feel is right? Also, do me a favor..."

She gave a secretive smile, her brown eyes glinting knowingly.

"Make sure no one finds out how I hid the keys to the infirmary in the second drawer of my desk in the art classroom, hmm? Thank you."

She patted him on the shoulder and walked away, her hair swished behind her head, snapping out to the side as she turned on the heel of her boots. Lukas was left to stare after her in confusion before she turned the corner and was gone from sight.

He glanced to the infirmary door, locked and reenforced enough so that Valentin wouldn't be able to break himself out.

Lukas shook his head.

 _He'd have only twisted my mind around even more in his favor had I spoken with him._

He walked away back down the hall.

 ** _The next day, early morning._**

 ** _(Technically later that day because everyone was up at 2 AM.)_**

Lukas stood in front of the infirmary door, he could hear the sound of footsteps, Valentin had awoken and was now pacing his prison.

Lukas looked up and down the hall.

 _No one else...everyone is still in the mess hall or finally getting some sleep._

Lukas exhaled slowly and looked down at the keys in his grasp, he'd gotten them out of Professor Ancient Greece's desk.

Fisting them inside his hand again, Lukas chose not to open the door.

Why risk Valentin getting away for something foolish as this? Why risk the safety and security of the academy over something as trivial as his _feelings_?

eLukas turned and was about to leave again when he shook his head.

 _If I don't talk to him now I'll regret it later._

Lukas strode up to the infirmary door and opened his mouth.

"Can you here me in there?"

The pacing stopped and footsteps rapidly approached the door.

"Who's there?"

The heavily accented voice permeated the door.

"Norway."

"Lukas? Why are you here?"

Lukas heard him back away from the door slightly, as if expecting it to be opened.

"I'm not letting you out."

A dramatic sigh.

"I didn't think you would."

Lukas gritted his teeth, hating how Valentin sounded exactly the same. Perhaps it was foolish of him to believe that Valentin should suddenly sound cruel and conniving, but that was what he subconsciously believed would happen. Still, though, without the door in between or the new knowledge of Valentin's loyalties, this could have been a simple conversation amid the two of them standing in the halls.

"I want to know why you did this." Lukas demanded.

"Did what? My job?" Valentin asked in a condescending tone.

"How else can you expect a sixteen year old with nothing to make money?"

"Actually, spying isn't really the first thing that comes to my mind."

Lukas replied snidely.

Valentin groaned.

"Yeah, well, I didn't have any better ideas."

"Like delivering papers? Or getting a job at a fast food restaurant? Or mowing lawns?"

Valentin gave a light chuckle that sounded a lot more somber then it had ever sounded during their previous conversations.

"Maybe that's how it works where you grew up, but not with me. Morgan showed up one day when I honestly thought we weren't going to make it. He gave us a chance to come to America and not have to steal and scrounge to survive."

 _Us._

Lukas's eyes widened.

 _We._

"I'm sorry, Vali, but do you not work alone?"

Valentin went silent.

"You said us. You said we. Is there someone else I've got to be worried about?"

Valentin didn't say a word. Lukas could tell he was stunned and internally cursing himself out for such a foolish slip of the tongue.

"Got you, _again_."

Lukas successfully disguised his voice, making it sound aloof and beyond care. For, this was always how he was able to hide his true feelings, behind multiple masks and facades he'd built over the years.

"I'll go let Headmaster know there might be another we've got to look out for. We can start a search, perhaps bring in more then one more of Morgan's operatives to interrogate. "

"No!"

Lukas heard the sound of a fist pounding against the door.

"He can't hurt you, I swear it!"

Lukas crossed his arms, happy Valentin couldn't see the way he'd winced at how pleading Valentin's voice had become.

Lukas shrugged.

"Why should I believe anything you say?"

"Despite the fact that I did do a bit of snooping..."

"A bit?"

Valentin exhaled.

"Fine, a lot. I never once lied to you."

Lukas felt the urge to laugh, something rare to him, when it did occur.

Valentin hadn't really told a single lie since he'd arrived.

According to what he'd said so far, he'd been hired by Morgan months after the original Morgan Mission. His knowledge of it had come mostly from being around the operatives who'd participated in it.

It was true, Valentin had never _really_ lied.

Lukas decided to push it a bit further.

"You may not have spoken any lies, but you just being here and saying how much you were excited to serve the academy was a lie. Your whole existence here with us was a lie. Now we know there's another one out there, and we need to do everything in our power to protect our home."

Valentin sounded desperate.

"He couldn't hurt you if he tried!" Valentin shouted through the door.

"I'd be a lot more convinced if you told me just why. But then, I wouldn't be convinced because I still don't have much investment of trust in your words."

Lukas heard Valentin push off the door in frustration, doing a lap of the infirmary he was confined too.

"Lukas, I am telling you, he can't hurt you."

"All I'm hearing is more of the same thing."

Lukas looked directly at the door when Valentin came back up to it and spoke in a quieted voice.

"He's only here because he trusts me."

"I suppose he's not very smart, then."

Lukas heard a creak of the thick wood and supposed that Valentin was leaning against the door that separated the two of them.

He moved with silent footsteps closer, he knew that, with the wood in between, them, there were only inches between him and the other boy.

"Valentin, you can't just magically make me trust you again with some begging words and more lies. For all I know, you're just feeding me more lies to take us off of a different trail."

Within the infirmary Valentin fisted his hands against the wood and slid to the floor, once on his knees he put a hand to cover his eyes, trying to calm himself down.

 _Trust isn't magic. I know that._

"He does trust me. He trusts me because I'm all he has."

Lukas was still there, and he responded frostily.

"Still not giving me any reasons to believe you. I'm going to go talk to Headmaster Rome now...bye."

Valentin listened to the footsteps moving off down the hall.

He buried his face in his hands, frustrated, burning hot tears welling in his scarlet eyes, not moving from his place on the floor in front of the door.

 _All I wanted was too make a better life for him...I failed him. We'll be thrown out again now. Just like the trash everyone thinks we are. I'll be lucky if I can get back to him one more time. I promised I would come back for him, looks like I lied about that too. How is it that I manage to betray everyone I care about?_

Several minutes passed, so wrapped up was he in his own grief that Valentin didn't hear the sound of the nearly silent steps of boots returning up the hall.

"You still listening?"

Lukas's voice was harsh, but didn't have that cutting lilt that Valentin had found so painful during their previous conversation.

"Y-Yeah..."

Valentin winced when his voice cracked.

Lukas still stood there, not saying anything but not making any move to leave.

"I'll stand here and listen to what you have to say, but I haven't got any guarantees that I'll believe you."

Valentin looked up at the door, imagining Lukas standing over him on the other side.

"Lukas, I heard when you were younger that you ran away from your Dad?"

"Yes."

"You took Emil with you?"

"Yes."

"You did it because you couldn't stand to see Emil hurt, right?"

"Yes."

"You'd do anything to take care of Emil, wouldn't you?"

"Yes."

"Even go against what you believe is right?"

"Yes."

Lukas didn't realize how immediate each of his answers were up until that last question. He considered just why Valentin would go through a series of questions like that before having quite the obvious realization.

Lukas looked at the door.

"I should believe this isn't just an elaborate angle to manipulate me because...?"

Valentin had no words, and Lukas sighed.

"You know the one person I care about more then anyone else in this world is my brother. If you were smart, which I know you are, you would come up with a story that would make me sympathize with you. Maybe let you out so we could go rescue this imaginary person you've made up."

"I'm not making him up! He's real and he's the only reason I'm here! You have to believe me!" Valentin begged.

Lukas shrugged.

"Issue is, I don't."

Lukas turned and walked away down the hall, this time he didn't return.

Valentin stared with growing despair at the door, so desperate he was to hear the return of the norwegian that he didn't hear the clattering of the window lock being picked and slid open from four stories up just a few feet behind him.

* * *

 _ **Amethyst: I ain't commenting on anything else concerning the future of the story because my readers are smart and they will figure it out and then it will be spoiled. I will not allow the big surprise to be spoiled.**_

 ** _*Silence*_**

 ** _Amethyst: How cute is that? They all fell asleep on top of each other. Must be tuckered out after trying to smash a hole in the wall earlier when they realized they couldn't force me to reopen the door out of here until the end of the story._**

 ** _*Silence*  
_**

 ** _Amethyst: Ok well I still need someone to do the sign off because I can't do it._**

 ** _*Silence*  
_**

 ** _Amethyst: Who do I wake up though? They're all so adorable when they're asleep. So much less annoying and loud._**

 ** _*Silence*_**

 ** _Amethyst: Fine, I suppose I'll just do it. Favorite, follow, and review! Thanks everyone!_**

 ** _*Silence*_**

 ** _Amethyst: And I'm standing here talking to myself. So how's life? Good. What's your favorite anime? Mines actually Fairy Tail. Do you like chocolate? Me too. What's your favorite color? Mines purple. I know, big shocker right?_**

 ** _*Silence*_**

 ** _Amethyst: Well this is absolutely pointless. I'm going to go binge watch Kill la Kill in the corner with a bag of cheetos. See you next chapter!_**


	13. The final face off

_**Here's the next chapter of Call me Magic, please enjoy!**_

* * *

 ** _That day, lunchtime._**

Everyone was still in the mess hall, none had really left save two or three who simply couldn't take the lack of sleep.

This was when the door at the front of the circular room slammed open and in stormed Headmaster Rome, followed by Professor Ancient Egypt, dress swishing behind her, and Professor Ancient Greece, who donned a black pencil skirt with a slight frill to the bottom and a red dress shirt, which had slight V neck that revealed the woman's cleavage a little bit, and a black dress jacket. Her brown hair was all piled up into a lifted up hairstyle.

Professor Gojosen followed right behind, looking enraged as Germania brought up the rear, closing the doors behind the rest of his colleagues, who ranged from concerned, to cool headed, to furious.

Rome went straight up the stairs to the small stage at the back end of the mess hall. With the uneasy silence reigning over the mess hall, Rome didn't even need a microphone.

"Valentin's escaped."

The cries of disbelief and astonishment bubbled and seethed, fists and hands were thrown into the air.

"QUIET!"

Rome roared.

Everyone was frightened into silence, never did Headmaster raise his voice that way.

Rome began to massage his temples, as he always did when he needed to calm himself down, and Germania stepped up to the plate.

"Everyone, please, questions will be answered after what we have to say. Valentin did not escape. He was rescued by Morgan's men, a small group, and there was only minimal damage to the infirmary. We have a larger issue at hand. Morgan has gotten his spy back, and Valentin has information that could prove dangerous to us. We've no choice but to make a move, we've got to...destroy Morgan."

Everyone in the room fell silent.

Professor Ancient Greece moved forward.  
"I know this is asking a lot, and none of you have to do this. But it's our time, this stalemate will not last long, either Morgan will attack us or we will be exposed by leaked information from Valentin. There is only one option."

She steeled her brown eyes, seemingly looking every student in the eye, every student felt as though the woman was speaking directly to them.

"We have to move against Morgan now. If not now, never."

Rome stepped up again, seeming to have recovered.  
"If you want to be in this mission, I want you to raise you hand. You won't be shamed if you say no. It will be against Morgan's entire army. I can't guarantee we'll come out unscathed."

For one terrifying moment, everyone was frozen.

The first hand that went up wasn't the heroic Alfred F. Jones. It wasn't the awesome Gilbert or the annoying Mathias or the brave Sadik.

A screech in the back of the room notified a chair being pushed back.

A head popped up, and a small hand went up. Silvery braids swung behind him as his puffy hat nearly toppled off when he stood.

"For our art!"

Kaiser Meridiana was standing up on his chair, his hand in the air, and not a moment after him Lars had put his hand up. All of the Micro Nations were standing up on their chairs in order to be seen, and Romeo, even though it was unnecessary at his height, did the same as his teammates, hand in the air.

Now the older kids were snapped out of their stupor.

Alfred threw his hand into the air,

"The hero never backs down!" He cried.

"Bloody hell, we're all in this damn school together I suppose."

Arthur grumbled as he uncrossed his arms and put up his hand, the rest of the allies were close behind.

"We are going to be doing the battling as comrades, da?"

Ivan asked cheerily, gloved hand in the air.

The trembling hand of Feliciano Vargas, school's resident coward, made it into the air. Lovino wasn't letting his brother volunteer alone, and where Lovi went, Toni followed.

Lilli put her hand up in an instant, her brother didn't even think when he saw her hand go into the air, he put his up alongside her.

The Baltic's were shaking head to toe, Poland had to throw both Ravis and Toris's hands in the air for them, with two of his own showing his support.

The Allies, East Asia, the Axis, the Ancients, the East Germans, all made their way up. The solo students were all on their feet, Michelle had her hand in the air with a determined look on her face.

The Nordic's were in a row to the back, and they all looked down at Tino.

Tino, who had already put his head down, crushed his eyes shut, and forced his hand up into the air.

Berwald put up his hand, Mathias did as well, Emil looked to his brother and nodded. The duo put their hands up as well.

Rome watched in awe as every single person in the room slowly put their hands into the air. He felt deeply moved by the devotion of his students and knew at that moment that he had, at least, taught them right.

Rome put his fist into the air, the other Professor's following suit.

"We'll show Morgan our strength!"

"YEAH!"

The crowd cheered, pumping fists and jumping to their feet.

Rome look to Germania, his long time closest friend and most trusted operative.

"You have a plan?"

Germania crossed his arms.

"What would you do without me?" He asked, a smile playing across his lips.

Rome chuckled.  
"Charge headlong into a lot more danger than usual."

Germania shook his head at him.

"I've got an idea."

"Well then, let's get started."

 ** _Still that same day, late afternoon._**

"I can't believe it only took Professor Germania three hours to come up with a plan for us. This is ridiculous. We're going to die."

Francis moaned as he marched along with the other allies towards the auditorium.

They filed in and the rest of the academy was already there, in full uniform.

"Listen up!" Rome called into a microphone as soon as everyone had gotten settled.

He began to list off names, once he finished, he continued.

"All of these operatives will be forming an outer perimeter around Morgan Skyscraper. No one gets in. No one gets out. Understand?"

Affirmative answers were called from the ones who had been named.

"Now, onto the infiltrating teams. We'll be using out best. The Baltic's will be securing entry positions, then they will move in and isolate the ground level, take it for us. From there the Axis will help take the following five levels. Continuing up we're using the Ancients, the East Germans, the Allies, and the Nordic's in that or any order, playing it by eye. At assigned floors a single team will drop off and defend that level. This way we can effectively take the entire building. On the signal, the outer perimeter will charge in and rush the floors, take it by storm, take down anyone not wearing red and black, unless, of course, you recognize them as friendlies. Or it's Valentin. If it's Valentin, I'm sure you all know what to do."

"I'll kick him in the head again!" Michelle exclaimed from somewhere in the crowd, encouraging a few laughs.

Lukas remained silent, still thinking over the last words he and the romanian had shared.

"To recap, once our main teams have taken certain parts of the building we know are important, on the signal, we'll charge. Stealth is very valuable to this mission, surprise is on our side. Morgan will be expecting us to be gearing up our defenses, not preparing for an attack. One more thing..."

Rome crossed his arms, he was wearing a pair of black cargo pants, and thick belt, and a tight red long sleeve with a black jacket over it. The other professors were also in different, very imposing, red and black mission attire.

"We'll be joining you. This means that we are leaving the Academy completely empty. While this could be dangerous, leaving a few behind would be as foolish as all of us staying here to begin with. The building will be put on full lockdown once everyone is prepared."

Rome narrowed his eyes and looked over his students, all of them looked determined and prepared, if incredibly concerned for their futures in the hours to come.

"We're ending this feud today! Our Academy will triumph, no matter what it's name may be! The World Academy, the Ancient Academy, the Hetalia Academy, we are all the same, and we will protect our school with everything! Let's move out!"

The students shouted and cheered with their Headmaster.

This was it.

The final face off.

Hetalia Academy vs. Morgan Enterprise.

Who would win would determine the fate of the school, of the students, and of everything they all knew and loved.

They would not fail.

* * *

 ** _Amethyst: Everyone's awake now!_**

 ** _Li: I get the feeling more then a few pictures were taken off us while we were sleeping._**

 ** _Amethyst: Yao was cuddling Kiku. You honestly think I could resist that?_**

 ** _Li: Like, I guess not._**

 ** _Amethyst: You were cuddling with Mei Mei._**

 ** _Li: GROSS!_**

 ** _Mei: *Slap* I am not gross I am your sister!  
_**

 ** _Li: Exactly!_**

 ** _Mei: *Slap again*_**

 ** _Amethyst: Hey Mei Mei, you wanna do the sign off?_**

 ** _Mei: Sure! Please favorite, follow, and review, everyone! Thanks for reading about our academy, I'm so glad I didn't die in the first story!_**

 ** _Amethyst: Unlike a certain Joltik that seems to love killing all of my favorite characters._**

 ** _Mei: Do they read this?_**

 ** _Amethyst: They will eventually. They will eventually._**

 ** _Li: Ok, well, that's that, like, bye._**


	14. Climbing

_**Here's the next chapter of Call me Magic, please enjoy!**_

* * *

 ** _11:00 o'clock that night._**

 ** _Morgan Skyscraper._**

"Ok, this is the correct entry point." Eduard reported, waving to the gathered amount of elite academy operatives. He pushed his glasses back up the bridge of his nose as he tucked the scanner he'd been using to pinpoint the exact area they had been searching for into a pouch on his belt that carried several other helpful devices. He, like Tino, was a tech expert, though he specialized more in the less...combustible side of gadgetry.

The Estonian was crouching next to a solid wall.

"Tino?"

Tino gave a giddy look.

"Time to go boom boom!" He said excitedly.

"Oh, god, back up bros."

Alfred suggested quickly, and everyone there quickly edged backwards.

"Already?" Lilli asked with wide curious eyes on what Tino was doing before her brother grabbed her arm and pulled her away from the wall.

The outer perimeter had been established, with the Professors spread amongst the groups of prepared operatives, readying them for the big charge, all waiting for the signal.

Shoshone, or Professor Native America, in a tasseled short skirted dress with a single strap and red tights underneath with black ankle boots, slipped a finger under her shimmering, silky long locks of midnight black hair.

"This is Professor Native America." She spoke.

"Have you achieved entry yet?" She asked.

Tino grinned.

"Almost!" He replied to her.

The teams gathered, the Ancients, the Baltic's, the Allies, the Axis, the East Germans, and the Nordics.

"Boom!" Tino cheered as he pressed something to the wall.

Everyone braced themselves.

"Just kidding, it's a stealth mission, why would I blow something up so soon?" Tino asked jokingly as the device's long mechanical arm spun rapidly, sawing into the wall.

In no time it had sawed out a small hole, just big enough for the largest of their group to squirm through.

Eduard hit the floor first.

"I scanned the entire building...this was the one spot where the walls weren't laced with sensors." He informed. His military suit was similar to Lithuania's, but it was black with several red buttons running down the front, with a black undershirt and a red tie.

"L-L-Let's do this." Ravis dropped from the hole to the ground and landed in a defensive stance, the tassels on his red shoulder pads swished this way and that as he looked back and forth, confirming they were alone. The rest of the operatives slipped into the hole, and they all snuck carefully forward.

"I believe that we should first deal with the guards surely in the lobby."

Kiku suggested.

"I agree, aru." Yao nodded.

Alfred pressed his back against the corner and peered into the lobby, instantly yanking his head back.

"At least a dozen men just in the front alone."

Elizabeta removed her frying pan from it's belt strap.

"Let's get this party started." She said, making to leap out from around the corner.

Eduard threw a hand up.

"I've got a better idea..."

A few moments later, Ravis was sent running from the side hall, right in front of the guards,

"Hello!" He exclaimed, waving to them, his faced looking absolutely terrified as he went sprinting into the next hallway, dodging around a corner and disappearing from sight.

The guards all stood there dumbly, staring after him absolute shock.

Alfred was stifling laughter as Francis went running out there.

"Bonjour, monsieur's!" He called, winking as he ran across, performing a pirouette before moving as fast as he could and joining Ravis behind the opposite corner.

By now the guards were completely confused.

"How fun."

Vash went flying across the hallway, rifle in it's strap across his shoulder, his sister wearing an identical uniform and chasing after him.

"Sorry to interrupt you!" She said to the guards as they vanished as well.

By now the guards had decided it was probably the best idea to investigate the random teenagers who'd just decided to hold a small relay race in their front lobby, and turned their backs on where they'd been coming from, facing the ones they had seen coming across and about to move in to see what what going on.

Elizabeta sprung out, followed by the other operatives. A frying pan to the head for several, a kick for others, and a punch for a few more, the guards were all knocked out on the floor in an instant.

"Let's lock'em in the closet back there." Alfred suggested.

"For once, America has had a good idea, aru." Yao sighed dramatically as he struggled to drag a guard twice his size behind the desk and into the small closet, feet slipping and skittering against the tiles without making more then a few inches of progress.

After they'd packed the unconscious men into the closet the group began to fan out through the level. A few more groups of guards were easily dispatched and so far no alarm had been raised.

The Baltic's stood at the bottom of the stairwell and waved off the other teams.

"We'll be covering you from down here, like, don't you forget to keep us in the know." Feliks ordered as he stood with the other three members of his team, waving them off.

The group continued upwards, everyone was alert, even Hercules, and Sadik was too focused to bother teasing him about it.

On every level they would move in and try to silently take down the guards. Certain levels had zero security, others had such a large amount that they would be panting at the next stair entrance.

"This reminds me of some sort of video game...as you keep going up, the levels get harder and harder." Mathias gasped, chest heaving.

"That's ten take downs for me." Sadik snickered.

"Fourteen for the awesome me!" Gilbert exclaimed just a little to loudly.

Elizabeta hit them both over the heads.

"And eighteen for me, stay focused! This may look and feel like a video game, but it's not!"

She ordered.

Both of them grumbled an apology and with this, they continued their climb.

When they arrived at the thirty-fifth floor, the only teams remaining with the original group were the Nordic's and the East Germans.

Elizabeta put a finger to her ear com.

"Checking in, East Germans."

Mathias copied her.

"Checking in, Nordic 5."

There was a crackling, then it was heard over the radio waves.

"Checking in, Baltic's." Feliks's voice came over.

In quick succession, the teams all checked in, saying they were all fine and things were under control.

"Fifteen floors left to go." Rome's voice told them.

That was when a disturbance echoed over the radio waves and Rome's voice demanded.  
"What was that?"

"Major trouble, this is Poland! We've got literally dozens of guys flooding up from the basement!"

Rome swore in italian and Germania's voice took over.

"There must have been a secret entrance from below, listen to me, Baltic's, try to bottleneck them! We're sending reinforcements, this is it. Everyone MOVE IN!"

Lukas dodged to the window and was meet with an incredible sight, the surroundings of the skyscraper came alive with mission suits and dresses of red and black charging into the building.

The com links were a strangely organized mess of shouted warnings, garbled reports, and cries of distress.

Vash turned on the Nordic's.

"You all keep moving upward, we'll hold this level for you, go straight for the top!"

The Nordic's froze.

"GO GO GO!"

Vash roared at them as he whipped his rifle from his back and into position, his sister doing the same.

The Nordic's turned and sprinted into the stairwell.

"Uh...guys!" Mathias looked over the edge of the railing and was meet with a troubling sight. Morgan's men were running up the stairwells, and operatives of the academy were struggling to hold them all back.

"Look out!" Tino cried suddenly, pointing upwards.

Several more men were coming down from the upper levels and without a thought Berwald lunged forward and flipped one up and over the railing, sending him tumbling downward with a scream. Mathias joined in the assault, mowing a path through the soldiers.

Lukas and Emil were alive with adrenaline, their kicks and punches landing home as they struggled upwards.

"Fin! Blow the stairs! We can't have any more of them coming up here!"

"R-Right!"

Finland was out of his element, but dropped behind them as they pushed forward two small blast balls.

They erupted into miniature explosions, blowing away two flights of the stairs and cutting them off from the rest of the building.

Mathias shoved his shoulder against one of the charging men, who in response roared out and gripped at the front of Mathias's overcoat, attempting to push him off.

"Go! Go around! Sve and I can hold them!"

Mathias managed to order as he and the towering swedish teen wrestled the small squad to one side of the stairwell.

"Finny, you first!"

Emil cried, seizing Tino by the sleeve and pushing him up the stairs, only to in turn be shoved upwards instead of being able to remain to fight by his older brother.

Lukas put a finger to his ear.

"This is Norway, we've encountered hostiles on the stairwell coming down from the 45 floor. Our team has been split, Denmark and Sweden are holding them at bay while Finland, Iceland, and myself are pushing on."

Rome's voice came over the speaker.  
"Hang in there, Nordics, we're slowly turning the tide down here! Keep going!"

Lukas could hear sounds of conflict in the background and swore he could also hear the other students oohing and ah-ing at something.

 _I suppose they weren't selected to be the teachers of the next generation for nothing._

He had the time to think before they burst onto the 44th floor.

"The only way up to the 45th floor is by some hidden stairwell, Kiku said it showed up in a scan the last time we were hear but he couldn't pinpoint it's location. Spread out and search, don't go to far, and if you find it don't go up alone."

Norway ordered before the three of them spilt, each moving in the three branching paths, one going straight, one the left, and one to the right.

Lukas moved straight ahead, scanning the building, he was wary of a run in with another of Morgan operatives, or even worse, a certain romanian.

Well, as it turned out, he _did_ run into a romanian, it just wasn't the one he was expecting.

* * *

 _ **Amethyst: Well, everyone freaked out last chapter.**_

 _ **Toris: What did you do?**_

 ** _Amethyst: Everyone realized this is the last story in the series._**

 ** _Entire Academy: WHAT!? YOU'RE ENDING US!?_**

 ** _Amethyst: I'm sorry! I've got so much work to do in real life so I figured I'd pour my heart and soul into this one to let you guys go out with a big BANG!_**

 ** _Tino: I like bangs!  
_**

 ** _Amethyst: I know you do. I have written your lives over the past year in the academy._**

 ** _Alfred: But-but-but-but...how are we gonna continue our fight against Morgan without you writing about us!?_**

 ** _Amethyst: Like I said, you're all going out with a BANG!_**

 ** _Lukas: You're not going to kill us, are you?  
_**

 ** _Amethyst: Oh, of course YOU asked me that._**

 ** _Mathias: *Hugs Lukas* Your gonna kill Norgey!?_**

 ** _Lukas: Norgey?_**

 ** _Amethyst: Sheesh, guys, all of you need to take a chill pill. I just told the Nordics to take a chill pill. *Checks that off her bucket list* Ok...Ladonia! You do it!_**

 ** _Lars: Me? Ok, everyone, favorite, follow, and review! Thanks a lot for reading and for supporting our academy in four awesome adventures!_**


	15. Aurel Popescu

_**Here's the next chapter of Call me Magic! Also double chap update today in honor of fanfic friend to us all** **Mondmaedchen, whom I call May-chan and have worked with on several occasions! So please enjoy!**_

* * *

Lukas moved straight ahead, scanning the building, he was wary of a run in with another of Morgan operatives, or even worse, a certain romanian.

Well, as it turned out, he did run into a romanian, it just wasn't the one he was expecting.

"Go away!"

Lukas stared in shock as a small brown haired boy came racing around the corner in tears, trembling head to toe. His hair was pulled up in two odd strands to either side of his head, they bounced along with his stride.

His hair was mostly down though and framing around his face with odd bangs. He wore a heavy, clearly old and patched several times, overcoat of dark mossy green, a large, thick black belt held it up from tripping him since it was clearly oversized, with baggy black pants, black boots, and a small green hat that defied gravity staying on his head. His accent was thick and his eyes were bright scarlet. There was a very endearing feeling all about him, he was all in all incredibly adorable.

Lukas blinked dumbly as the boy ran up to him and started punching at his shins with vigor.

It was like getting hit with a bag of extra large marshmallows.

At least, until the kid swung a surprisingly strong kick with his clunky boots that had at least an inch of platform on them.

Biting back a curse and hopping up and down clutching his shin, Lukas took a moment to shake off the sudden strike. Once he did he grabbed the boy by the wrist to stop him from running off or trying to hit him again.

Lukas sat back on his haunches, eye level with the large, round eyes that were blood red, and he noted how the child also had very sharp incisors. His face was still round and his eyes were nearly perfect circles, he wasn't any older then ten.

 _Brown hair, scarlet eyes, pointy teeth, tiny hat, and heavy accent. Where have I seen these traits before?_

Lukas sighed as the boy watched him with all the confidence of a spooked rabbit.

"Why are you here!? No one ever comes up here!"

"What's your name?" Lukas demanded.

The brown haired boy shook his head, sniffling with tears welling largely in the corners of his eyes.

"Not telling."

"Ok. Well do you know someone named Valentin Popescu?"

"WHAT DID YOU DO TO BIG BROTHER!?"

The kid renewed his attempts at attacking Lukas and Lukas simply lifted the boy clear off of the ground.

"I'm assuming your Valentin's little brother, then?"

"What did you do!? I haven't seen him for weeks and weeks and Mr. Rooke says he'll be back soon but he hasn't come back yet! He promised he'd come back for me! He promised!"

All this flailing, kicking, and screaming seemed to have tired the child out, and he went limp in Lukas's grasp after a few moments more.

"He promised..." The small boy whimpered.

Lukas held him at arms length and raised an eyebrow, knowing he was probably the exact image of the kind of person this little boy had been taught never to talk to.

 _I mean I told Emil the exact same thing, so..._

"I'm..."

Lukas shook his head, not worth the risk.

"Nor."

The boy looked at him, befuddled, he was still crying, the large tears rolling down his cheeks weren't slowing.

"I'm eighteen. How about you?"

The brown haired boy rubbed his eye with a fisted hand.

"Aurel. I'm nine."

 _Of all the times...Valentin was telling me the truth._

"So your big brother is named Valentin, then?"

A small nod.

Lukas wished so desperately that Tino had been the one to stumble upon the child, he would have handled this situation so much better.

Lukas set the child back down on his own two feet and held one of his wrists to make sure he didn't run away.

Lukas stood back up but hunched slightly so he wouldn't seem to foreboding.

Aurel looked up at him suspiciously.

"Ok, listen. I know your brother. He did something very dangerous and very stupid, but he did it to take care of you. That's why you haven't seen him. But I..."

 _Valentin I swear you are going to pay dearly for making me do this._

"I'll help you find him, alright? I'm trying to find him too."

Aurel brightened up slightly, but he looked more tired then anything else.

Lukas sighed, he clearly couldn't run and expect this nine year old who looked like he was six to keep up.

"Ok, here, why don't I let you ride on my back so we can go faster?"

Aurel frowned.

"Big brother told me not to go with strangers."

 _His brother told him this. Not his mother or his father. His brother. Now I'm getting a better idea of why Valentin pulled this stunt._

Lukas hated this, he was not made to deal with children.

 _Unless it's Emil. Emil was a sweet adorable perfect little child. He was the only one I could deal with._

"Well you know my name." Lukas began.

 _Sort of._

"And I know your name. You know how old I am and I know how old you are. So we're not strangers anymore, are we?"

Aurel looked boggled by this logic but nodded slowly.

"I guess so..."

Lukas bent down and allowed the small boy to climb onto his back.

"Hold on to the edges of my vest ok?"

Two fistfuls of his dressy black vest were instantly taken into tiny hands.

"Alright, here we go."

Lukas held onto Aurel with one arm and raised the other to his earpiece.

"Headmaster, this is Norway. I'm reporting in that I'm badly handicapped for the rest of the mission."

"What!? Norway, are you hurt?" Lukas noted the slightly breathless way in which he spoke.

"No, sir, I've just got a scared nine year old boy on my back that I can't let get caught in the crossfire."

Rome was silent for a moment.

"Why on earth is there a nine year old running around in Morgan Skyscraper? Also how did you find him?"

Lukas sighed.

"He was crying when he ran up to me, assuming I was coming to attack him. He told me his name. Its Aurel Popescu."

He tacked on the last name by assumption, but Aurel, who was dozing on his back as Lukas strode down the hall, didn't protest.

"...so Valentin had a good reason for this after all?"

"Looks like it, I'll keep him with me, ok?"

"You do that, don't let the kid get hurt."

"I won't...hey!" Lukas exclaimed this when his earpiece was suddenly snatched by Aurel.

"Who're you talking to?" The scarlet eyed boy asked.

"A person." Lukas deadpanned.

"That's a bad answer!" Aurel scolded.

"Well he's a good person." Lukas responded.

"But how come your talking to him with an earring?" Aurel asked curiously, turning the earpiece this way and that to see it better.

"It's not an earring it's an ear com." Lukas corrected him testily.

"Same thing." Aurel whined.

"No it's not."

"Who's the good person anyway?"

"Someone that you'll probably meet at some point, can I have my earpiece back now? Thank you."

Lukas plucked the earpiece back from Aurel's hands and replaced it in it's proper spot.

"Sorry, sir."

Rome gave a soft snicker.

"Hold onto him, ok?"

"I will. How is it down there?"

Rome took a moment.

"It's going well, we've taken the first twenty floors and soon enough we'll be up there, hold on, don't do anything rash."

"Right. Don't take the east stairwell, Finland blew it up to cover our escape."

Rome chuckled again.  
"Thank you for the warning. Good luck."

"You too, sir."

Lukas put his other arm back under Aurel to make sure he didn't slip and starting running, soon enough arriving back at the intersecting halls, he raised his hand yet again to his earpiece.

"Iceland, Finland, I need you two back at the intersection, now."

The urgency in Lukas's voice causes the two sets of footsteps to come racing from either direction in nearly an instant.

"I found the stairwell." Emil reported.

"I found a weapons locker!" Tino chirped, holding up what looked worryingly like a grenade.

"I found a child."

"Hi!"

Aurel waved to them both.

Tino dissolved into pointless giggles at the randomness and the contrast of Norway's starkly serious face and Aurel's innocently confused expression.

Of course he was confused, one moment he was sitting around in the room he'd been put into to wait for his brother to come back, the next there were explosions shaking the building and people were shouting everywhere.

Emil on the other hand was deeply concerned.

"And where did you find this child?"

"Down the hall. He said he's Valentin's little brother."

"Wow! Really?" Tino asked.

"Where's big brother? Did you see him?"

Aurel asked, latching onto the chance.

Tino shook his head somberly.

"Sorry, I haven't seen Vali for a while."

"Neither have I, sorry kid." Emil said.

The four shared a moment of silence before Emil spoke.

"What do we do, should we still head up the stairwell?"

Lukas steeled his face.

"We have too, if we don't then Morgan could find a way to slip away and this would all have been for nothing. I've also got a pretty good idea. It would involve Aurel here helping us out though."

Aurel blinked and then leaned over Lukas's shoulder in an attempt to look the violet eyed older boy in the face.

"What do you want me for?" He asked.

Lukas gave the other two Nordic's a look that almost said 'well, what have we got to lose?'

"How good are you at acting, Aurel?"

"I can act stuff."

"Can you act like your asleep?"

"Will it help big brother if I act like I'm asleep?"

Lukas glanced back at Tino and Emil, who both nodded.

"Yes. If you act like your asleep it'll help us get your brother back."

"Ok, then I'll act asleep"

Lukas relaxed his features for a moment, looking rather exhausted from his incredibly long day, before straightening up.

"Let's finish this." He declared.

They headed for the stairs.

* * *

 _ **Amethyst: What is wrong with all of you?  
**_

 _ **Entire Academy: *Holding picket signs***_

 _ **Alfred: We decided we aren't gonna let you cancel us!**_

 _ **Amethyst: And you have control over this how? Have you not heard Kiku's SEVERAL explanations about this entire world being controlled by me?**_

 _ **Kaiser: Just because it is controlled by you doesn't mean we have to let you cancel our art! Please reconsider!**_

 _ **Rome: The kids probably the one who said the most politely, so I suppose we all have to follow his example.**_

 ** _Amethyst: You too? Really? What do those signs even say? *Reading* 'Save Hetalia Academy' 'Fight for installment five' 'Morgan an ass but we still need to get to class' Who wrote that last one?  
_**

 ** _Alfred: Me!_**

 ** _Amethyst: Ok, I could have guessed. Anyway, guys, you're being really..._**

 ** _Entire Academy: RECONSIDER RECONSIDER RECONSIDER!_**

 ** _Amethyst: My ears! *Puts on earmuffs*_**

 ** _Kaiser: *Adorable face* Pleeeease?_**

 ** _Amethyst: *Covers eyes* NOPE! Resist the cuteness, Amethyst!_**

 ** _Kaiser: Pleeeeeeeease favorite and follow! Thanks everybody!_**

 ** _Alfred: We're gonna yell at the author some more, so make sure to drop a review while you're at it!_**


	16. The 45th floor

_**Man, I am evil! :D Please enjoy!**_

* * *

 ** _Morgan's office, the 45th floor of Morgan Skyscraper._**

"I thought you told me they weren't prepared for a full scale attack!"

Morgan roared.

Valentin put up two hands in surrender, he was still wearing the pants from his old academy uniform. He hadn't been wearing a shirt in the infirmary because Professor Ancient Greece had checked both for weapons and for serious injuries. He had grabbed his red overcoat, though it was emptied of anything useful, and he was wearing that as well. His hat had been lost in the trip over.

"I thought that they weren't! I didn't see any protocol or any sort of battle preparations anywhere, all I saw was defensive, and I was never taught anything but basic drills. The whole time I was there we didn't have a single drill of anything, not even a fire drill."

Morgan turned on the heel of his dress shoes, wearing his usual pristine suit, and stalked back around to his desk.

"How far have they gotten?" He demanded into the speaker of his desk.

No response.

"I am talking to you, how far have they gotten!?"

"I'd say about the 45th floor."

Morgan spun to look at the door and was shocked to see a trio of teenagers in the doorway from his secret stairwell.

"I also marked your stairwell with spray paint from that convenient weapons locker of yours, that way plenty of our friends can find their way up." Emil said, tossing the can he'd used up into the air and catching it again.

Under the other arm, he had a small limp body shrouded in green, brown hair hanging beneath him, the two odd strands to either side drooping.

"AUREL!"

Lukas could feel a powerful yank at his heartstrings at the amount of horror laced into Valentin's voice.

Valentin instantly bolted to seize his brother from Emil's grasp but Morgan threw an arm in front of him, halting him in his tracks.

"Let me talk."

For a moment no words were spoken, and Valentin was glaring at Lukas with such a look of disbelieving betrayal.

 _I guess now you know the feeling._

Emil, meanwhile, felt Aurel twitch when he heard his brother scream out his name, but he didn't move any further, or attempt to maneuver in any way that would allow him to see the older.

"I have to say you have managed to catch me rather by surprise. I was honestly expecting you to be preparing your defenses."

Lukas didn't dare say a word, and he noted the way Tino seemed to shrink away when Morgan's voice echoed through the air. The boy's wide violet eyes were eyeing Morgan with distrust and fear.

Morgan spotted him with ease.

"Ah, you've brought a familiar face." He stated.

Lukas sidestepped slightly in front of Tino defensively, Emil remaining in place, tossing the spray can to the side and allowing one arm to hang to the side, his other arm was still wrapped around Aurel's waist, who still hung as if unconscious.

Tino swallowed hard, struggling to even look Morgan in the eye.

Lukas scowled.

"This time you can't hurt him. He's not chained for you to beat now."

Morgan raised an eyebrow in surprise.

"Hmm? Oh, he did not tell you about our training sessions?"

Lukas's brow instantly knitted slightly and Morgan's face cracked into a cruel smile.

"Now that...that is something I would think he would tell his beloved team about."

Tino took a breath, as if he were about to stop what Morgan was about to say, before he managed to look Morgan in the eye and instantly crushed his head down, violet eyes shut for a moment, breathing hard.

"You see..."

He began, about to finally spill the secret that the entire school had been undeniably pondering for almost a year now.

There was a crash, a great clatter from the stairs, and the three Nordic's just barely dodged to either side before Headmaster Rome came shooting out of the doorway.

"Morgan!" He roared, coming to a firm stand in front of his students, face to face with a man that, the last time he'd faced him, they'd been been shaking hands, preparing for a fair competition.

"Empire." Morgan hissed.

Valentin unconsciously backed slightly behind Morgan, the entire room was on pins and needles.

Morgan crossed his arms and gave a smirk.

"It's been quite a while, I see you haven't aged well."

"I'm sad to tell you, old friend, that you're growing some gray hairs."

None of the minors in the room dared to speak a word.

Morgan fisted his hands.

"You stole the academy from me, and now here you are still lying to your students about it to this day. Chang, Helena, Iris? And how about Alice or Shoshone? They all still believe you won, fair and square."

"That's because I did."

Rome's golden eyes looked to be aflame.

"It's just that you've always been a sore loser."

"We've been rivals since the day we met."

Morgan continued on.

"Perhaps, but then we were friends. We were teammates. This was before Carthage and Rome." Rome countered.

Morgan gave a cruel sounding snicker that caused Tino to back towards the stairway slightly.

"Oh, how could I ever forget those years? Before Carthage and Rome, there came Portugal and Italy. The best times of our lives."

Rome nodded.

"We were the best in the Ancient Academy, weren't we? We trusted each other with our lives."

"Indeed we did."

Morgan took a slight step to the side, widening his stance.

Rome copied the motion.

"We were always together. Everyday, all the time. We shared a base. We shared notebooks and lunch tables. I was the first one you came running too whenever you were about to fail another exam. How you can now teach is beyond me."

Rome's eyes narrowed, he was eyeing Carthage for any sign of a sudden, dangerous movement.  
"But you can't forget the rest of our team." Rome pointed out.

Carthage's humored snicker escaped again.

"Of course, how could I forget about China, Greece, and Egypt. The five of us daydreaming about taking on the criminals of the world together."  
Rome gritted his teeth.  
"We never believed that one of us would become one."

"Romulus, please. You want to speak of crime?"

Rome scowled.  
"What our school does is for the good of us all. You know it as well as I do, you once served this organization as loyally as I still do. Your just so sore about losing the position of headmaster to me in a fair fight that you make up some scandalous cheating method that I used, all so you won't have to face it. You lost that day, Rooke! You lost! And it's about time you got over it, instead of dragged all of these innocent kids down into your darkness!"

The voices were rising.

"You know you cheated, Romulus! You know it, I can remember it clear as day! Why else would that wall have crumbled on me at that exact moment? Why else would that rock wall grip had come unscrewed at the instant I seized it?"

"I admit it looked bad." Rome said.

"I do not deny that you had reason to believe I may of cheated, but you know me better then that! I would have been as happy to serve under you as a Professor as I am to serve as the Headmaster now! Perhaps happier, because then you would have never gone down this road of crime and stealing!"

"You were the one who sent me to where I am now!"

Morgan's eye began to twitch as the hum of a helicopters blades settled into the background of this face-off.

"No." Rome's voice stilled the room, it came with such a confidence, such an air of restrained fury about it.

"Do not lie, Rooke. No matter what name you go by, Morgan, Rooke, Carthage, to me I still see a string bean teenager codenamed Portugal with a massive appetite and a competitive spirit that just wouldn't quit. I've saved you life. You've saved mine. Why is it that now we fight to try and destroy each other? We once thought each others lives were precious and valuable. We once would have cried over the others body, we once would have taken the hit for the each other. I want to know what happened to that?"

Morgan was gritting his teeth so hard his jaw was probably aching, and his eyes were burning with unclear desires.

"I once would have taken the hit for you."

Morgan pulled a pistol from his pocket.

"But I know that your life is of little value to you compared to so many others. You've just got far to many people around you to protect. You can't be everywhere at once."

Morgan swept to gun towards Emil and Rome instant took a single step in order to defend the young icelandic. Morgan smirked and snapped the pistol back the opposite direction, Rome started at him in disbelief that he would stoop so low.

As for Lukas, he stared at the gun aimed straight at his chest.

Morgan pulled the trigger.

"Don't!"

Valentin cried out as he shoulder tackled Morgan a split second to late.

A scream clawed it way out, erupted Lukas's lips. Lukas felt tears spring into his eyes, scarlet flew into the air and seeped into his shirt.

Lukas blinked as black swam in front of his vision, the whole world was tipped onto it's side.

He looked slowly to one side, unaware of the fact that he was losing his balance and falling forwards, his cross shaped hair clip lifting up from his head slightly, the ground rushing up to meet him.

Emil's violet eyes were wide with unspeakable amounts of horror.

 _Why is Emil so upset?_

Lukas felt the pain suddenly shoot up from the wound like electricity, like fire suddenly being lit inside his veins.

 _Oh._

His violet eyes rolled up.

 _I just got shot._

* * *

 ** _Rome: That's it! I'm gonna murder Carthage!_**

 ** _Amethyst: Sheesh, calm down._**

 ** _Rome: CALM DOWN!? HE SHOT ONE OF MY STUDENTS!  
_**

 ** _Amethyst: Yes. And there is absolutely nothing you could have done about it. It was physically impossible for you to protect Emil, Tino, and Lukas by yourself all at once at that close of range._**

 ** _Rome: *Sigh* Perhaps you're right. I'll just go murder Carthage now, don't mind me._**

 ** _Amethyst: *Waves* Have fun! *Whispers* Does he realize he still can't leave? There isn't a door._**

 ** _Yao: I have been narrating the door situation this entire time, aru. Still no door._**

 ** _Amethyst: I thought so. I mean even I can't create it unless I wanna use all my laptop magic in one go._**

 ** _Yao: Not even asking where you got that magical laptop...is that a sticker of me on it?  
_**

 ** _Amethyst: *Covers chibi China sticker on the back of her laptop* Noooooooooo._**

 ** _Yao: I'm officially creeped out, aru._**

 ** _Amethyst: Of course you are. Now, if you please._**

 ** _Yao: Fine. Please favorite, follow, and review! *Hefts picket onto his shoulder* We need to resume our protest of being cancelled, aru._**

 ** _Alfred: MORGAN'S AN ASS BUT WE STILL NEED TO GET TO CLASS!  
_**

 ** _Amethyst: Oh please don't start a chant of that._**

 ** _Entire Academy: MORGAN'S AN ASS BUT WE STILL NEED TO GET TO CLASS!  
_**

 ** _Amethyst: ...has anyone seen my earmuffs?_**


	17. Not again!

**_Please enjoy the next chapter!_**

* * *

Lukas blinked as black swam in front of his vision.

He looked slowly to one side, unaware of the fact that he was losing his balance and falling forwards, the ground rushing up to meet him.

Emil's violet eyes were wide with unspeakable amounts of horror.

 _Why is Emil so upset?_

Lukas felt the pain suddenly shoot up from the wound like electricity, like fire suddenly being lit inside his veins.

 _Oh._

His eyes rolled up.

 _I just got shot._

"No!"

Emil dropped Aurel to the ground, he'd since stopped his 'asleep' act and caught himself on his hands and knees. The small boy's brother didn't see this, he was still fighting with Morgan over the gun that had just been fired at the norwegian who now lay still as death on the floor.

In a dangerously fast growing pool of his own blood.

Emil dropped to his knees next to his older brother, who'd lost consciousness shortly after the impact.

"Nor...?" Aurel stared in confusion as Rome bent and lifted Lukas into his arms, ignoring the red that splattered part of his jacket when he did this. Lukas's head lolled back like a marionette that had had it's strings cut. His head rolled against the Headmaster's chest, his face was growing sickeningly pale, which was especially worrying what with the blondes normal complexion. It was now that more footsteps clattered up from the stairwell.

Iris emerged, followed closely by Helena.

"What happened?" Helena instantly demanded.

"Norway's been shot." Rome said in a hollowed out voice.

Valentin was struggling to wrestle the gun away from Morgan, and Tino suddenly took off running, his boots clomping footsteps rang through the modern office space.

He performed a complete circuit of the room, dropping small brown wrapped packages behind him.

"Are those your defective packing explosives?"

Iris asked worriedly.

"Yes."

Surprisingly calm.

"Run for it!"

Tino cried out.

No need to be told twice, they all fled down the stairwell, leaving Valentin slowly being overtaken by Morgan.

Of course, Morgan was for more skilled and a lot stronger, and the element of surprise had long since worn off.

Helena bent and scooped Aurel off of the ground.

"Come with us, little one."

She whispered quickly.  
"Big brother!" He called out, his high voice sounded tortured, squirming to get free.

Helena grasped the young boy firmly, hugging him tightly with his legs swinging out from under her arm and his head forcibly tucked onto her shoulder. She ran down the stairwell.

Tino was the last one to the door, and he froze for a heartbeat, knowing they had less then three minutes.

"Damn it!" He cried out in a very un-Tino-like way before he turned away from the door and charged.

He kicked Morgan in the face, grabbed Valentin by the arm and dragged him away, then, as Morgan stood to fight back, Tino spun and kicked. Probably the best form and strength he'd ever managed in a round house to this day, his heel struck Morgan across the face so hard the finnish boy heard his jaw snap.

"Still think I'm weak!?" Tino screamed, voice trembling, then, not waiting for a reply, he seized a dumbfounded Valentin by the hand.  
"Run unless you want to get blown up today!"

He dragged him to the stairwell, and they left Morgan on the 45th floor, clutching at his jaw.

"Attention everyone, this is Finland, get clear of the building! Things are about to go boom!"

He rattled this off as fast as he could.

"NOT AGAIN FINLAND!"

He heard choruses of this throughout the radio waves connecting to his com link as they sprinted down the stairs with all the pace they could muster, leaping full flights of stairs on the way down.

They were nearly to the bottom when they felt the entire building tremble, a huge explosion ripping apart the upper fifteen or so stories of the Morgan Skyscraper.

"Ha!"

Finland heard America cackling into his ear com.  
"We've blown up his fancy building twice now!"

Then Prussia an instant later.

"What a show! Totally awesome!"

They were finally outside, and both Tino and Valentin fell onto the grass gasping.

"That...was...fun..." Tino managed.

Valentin didn't even say a word.

Soon enough Iris came over.

She leaned over Valentin.

"Would you kind enough to come with me? We've got a ride waiting."

Valentin took a few more heavy breaths before sitting up.

"Hey, Tino."

Tino glanced up.

"Make sure Aurel is ok." He said with air about him that it wasn't so much of a request as a very important demand.

Tino looked at him in surprise as Valentin pushed off of one knee and got to his feet.

"Sure."

"Thanks."

With this, Valentin went away with Professor Ancient Egypt with any struggle or resistance.

Tino groaned and rolled over on his back, staring up at the starry sky.

 _I defeated Morgan and escaped the room._

He thought to himself.

 _I'm free._

He felt a little bit lighter in his heart all of the sudden, and the small smile coming onto his face was anything but forced.

 _By Morgan's own rules...I'm free._

Tino looked up at the black night, at the twinkling stars.

That view had just become so much more sweet.

Tino was broken from his moment of bliss and practically jumped to his feet when his ear com crackled to life.

"This is Headmaster Rome. I need a count off, now. Everyone back the back of the skyscraper. If you're hurt, you need to report, if you do not report now, you will be assumed badly injured and instantly searched for. We haven't got much time until the police show up, everyone move fast."

"Finland, reporting in, I'm fine!" Finland instantly called into the ear com, before he stood and started a final dash towards the back of the skyscraper. The looming building didn't seem so scary anymore, not with it's top in a fireball, thanks to that always cheerful, possibly explosive young entry, who always more then one trick up his sleeve.

 ** _Headmaster Rome's control van._**

He watched the screen as the number in red text rose rapidly, listening to the voices in his own ear com.

"America here, I'm a-ok!"

"The awesome Prussia is as awesomely awesome as ever!"

"Seychelles here, making my way down from the tenth floor, I'm alright!"

"Hungary here, I'm running around from the western side of the building!"

"Sealand reporting in! I knocked a guy unconscious for the very first time! It was great!"

"Kugelmugel is reporting! I am ok! That performance was such beautiful art!"

"This is Romano. Me and the a-tomato bastard here are a-ok."

"Ciao~ Italy here! That was super duper scary but I'm a-ok!"

"China here, aru. I am making my way around from the front of the building, aru. Aii-yah! I nearly got crushed by rubble falling from the upper stories. What a mess, aru!"

The numbers and calls that gave Germania one less reason to worry apiece then began to slow, Germania tapping his pen on the small desk keyboard.

 _We've got 102 operatives, and each of their ear coms will register here when activated. Right now I'm listening for any distress calls._

The counter stopped.

95

The counter had stopped seven short.

"This is Germania, we've got seven operatives down. Repeat, seven operatives dow..."

"Prof...mania...need...assitan...com has...damag..."

Germania's fingers flew across the keyboards, isolating the speaker and who it was.

He paled when the students name came up.

"This is Germania, we need someone on the fifth floor, Seborga is reporting in a distress call and his com has been damaged!"

A few moments of tense silence.

"Professor Germania, this is Seychelles, I'm on the sixth floor heading down, I'll pick up Seborga!"

"Good, thank you."

That was one, where were the other six missing?

Another crackling in his earpiece alerted him.

"...Hong Kong here." Came a hissed voice, constricted in pain.

"Hong Kong, where are you?"

"Outside, I think on the eastern side...got thrown out a second story window like I weighed nothing. Some shattered glass cut my chest pretty bad on the way down. My arm isn't feeling to good either..."

"This is Taiwan, I'm on my way, Hong."

The girls voice burst suddenly over the speaker.  
"Like, thanks...hurry up, if it's no big deal."

"I'm running, I'll be there soon."

"Great..."

That was two, and now Germania started trying to isolate and pinpoint the others who were missing.

 ** _The 5th floor of Morgan Skyscraper._**

Michelle inched into the hallway, it was spooky, she thought, the place that had been a battlefield an hour beforehand was deserted, doors were ripped from hinges, vases and pictures were shattered. Windows were broken, tables were flipped, chairs, papers, and other things were strewn all about.

"Seb? Where are you?" She called, large brown eyes scanning the messy hallway.

No response.

Now she was getting worried.

She picked up her pace, her boots tapping away down the hall as she hurried from door to door, peaking in every time and seeing more of the same destruction and chaos.

She whirled around a corner and promptly tripped over something.

She shrieked and toppled over, flat on her stomach, splayed out across Romeo's lap.

Romeo forced a laugh as he tossed his ruined com link to the ground, no need for him to struggle with fixing it anymore.

"You ok, Sey?" He asked.

"Oh! Seborga! There you are!"  
Seychelles cried out, picking herself up and smoothing down her skirt.

"What happened, are you ok?" She squatted back on her haunches next to him.

Seborga grimaced.

"Ah, my team and I were supposed to stay on the first floor during the entire battle, helping to hold down the fort, Headmaster said. One thing led to another though and the next thing I know I'm by myself facing down this huge guy on the fifth floor. I tried to kick him but he caught my ankle and...I'm pretty sure he broke it because I can't walk on it. I know you shouldn't take your shoes off when you do something to your ankle, so I didn't. I managed to shoot the guy off down the hall but I've been stuck here ever since."

Seychelles's tanned skin paled.

"You shot..."

Seborga stared at her, then gasped and began waving his arms frantically to deter any further assumptions.  
"No! No! I didn't kill him! I shot at him and he didn't realize I'd had a gun, and so from where I was I could have killed him but I just fired another shot really close to his feet and he ran for it. Coward."

Romeo gave another soft laugh which quickly turned into a hiss of pain when he attempted to stand.

"Glad your here, though. I think I can walk."

He put his weight on his other foot and instantly his leg buckled under the strain. Michelle darted forward and caught him around the chest, throwing her arms around the larger, yet younger, boy to make sure he didn't go toppling over to the cold tiles again.

She pulled his arm over her shoulder and hunched over slightly to bear his weight. Her knees were bent inward to give Romeo the room to lean on her.

"It's over. We won. Just take it easy, I'll help you get down to the vans."  
Romeo let out a sigh of relief, grateful for the helping hand. With a purposely dramatic sigh, he slumped his shoulders, giving in and allowing himself to be supported on his older schoolmates shoulder, taking it one step at a time towards the stairs.

 _"Grazie."_

 ** _Headmaster Rome's control van._**

Germania's eyes flitted across the screen.

Michelle had reported that she'd found Romeo, and he was on a broken ankle and could barely walk. He'd sent Mathias, who'd made it back with miraculously little injury from how he and Berwald he faced down so many soldiers.

Other then a few purpling bruises and an impressive boot print on his chest from getting kicked into a wall, he was fine, and he'd gone to help Seychelles carry Seborga down the stairs since there was no way the female operative could lift the thirteen year old by herself.

Despite his age, Germania knew well that Romeo was a good six to eight inches taller then the brown haired islander.

Li had been picked up by his sister and was nursing a broken arm.

Luckily the reason he hadn't been able to get to his feet had simply been because he was dazed from the fall, as far as could be told by Professor Ancient Greece, he didn't have any serious head injuries.

That still left five operatives unaccounted for, and Germania was starting to fear the worse.

That was when another call came in.

"This is, like, Poland, reporting."  
Germania looked relieved as the red text of the screen ticked up to count Poland, he'd been one of the ones who hadn't been called in.

"Poland, where are you? Are you injured?"

"Professor Germania?"

"Yes."

A sort of frantic tone took over the polish blondes voice, causing it to quiver as he spoke with a panicked rush of speed.

"Ok, like, I'm here on the second floor with Lithuania and Latvia and they are both like, totes unconscious and they won't wake up, I mean, like, this dude hurled Latvia across the hallway and into the wall and he got knocked out and then Lithuania got hit in the head with the butt of this other guys gun and nearly got shot but I dove at the guy and smacked his gun away but he grabbed my hand and twisted it in ways it's never twisted before and then I kicked him until he was out cold and my wrist is hurting really bad and I'm not strong enough to carry them anyway and I'm freaking out because we're all alone up here and I don't know how the help them and they..."

"Calm down, Poland!"

Poland stopped talking and Germania exhaled, blue eyes flicking across his screen.

"Stay where you are, I'm sending..."

He shot a glance out of the van to try and spot someone he could send. He spotted the Allies all in rapt conversation with each other.

"Russia. I'm sending Russia. He'll be able to help you carry them both."

Poland let out a dramatic gasp and Germania heard the rustle of fabric and a body hitting the floor.

"Did you just faint?"

Another dramatic gasp.

"Fine, I'll send America and Canada instead."

"Thanks, Prof...I don't think having Russia being the first thing they see when they wake up will help Lithuania or Latvia any."

Germania hated how much he agreed.

He manually increased the count by three, that left two uncounted for.

"America! Canada!" He barked out the van.

had concerned eyes visible through their glasses, they were obviously expecting something along the lines of bad news.

"Go to the second floor and find Poland." He ordered.

Alfred and Matthew turned to run towards the building at once, but Germania's continuing voice halted them from taking off.

"He's got an injured wrist and he's with an unconscious Latvia and Lithuania. Hurry, Poland's about to have a heart attack, he's not exactly calm."

"Got it, we're on it, Prof! America twins, away!" Alfred exclaimed with a cheeky two fingers salute and a wink of his sky blue eyes.

"Since when is that our name?" Mattie asked quietly as they both left at a run, moving towards the back entrance of the building.

"Well, we're both named after countries in North America aren't we? Plus everyone seems to mistake you for me, though no ones ever mistaken me for you. Of course not, it's impossible not to recognize the hero!"

Alfred grinned brightly.

"I just figured since Canada and America are close and we look similar, the America twins would be a cool name for a heroic duo like us!"

Matthew heaved a sigh as they began to scale the stairs, up towards the second floor, the hood of his heavy coat was bouncing behind him.

"If you say so..." He caved.

"Cool! Let's go faster!" He sped up with seemingly no effort.  
"America!" Canada shouted in frustration as he picked up his own pace, calling after his 'twin' as they raced ahead to give aid to the injured Baltic's on the floor above.

Germania was still back in the control van, and after a few more minutes of heart pounding, stressful waiting to strain on his patience, he tried to manually access exactly who these two were.

The results?

Norway, which instantly concerned him seeing as he was always very careful and alert. The other surprised him even more.

He'd always assumed South Korea was just too much of a loose cannon to get hurt.

* * *

 _ **Amethyst: I think my ears are gonna explode.**_

 _ **Entire Academy: MORGAN'S AN ASS BUT WE STILL NEED TO GET TO CLASS!**_

 _ **Amethyst: All of you just shut up!**_

 _ **Entire Academy: MORGAN'S AN ASS BUT WE STILL NEED TO GET TO CLASS!**_

 _ **Amethyst: That's it! *Laptop magic commences***_

 _ **Entire Academy: *Muted***_

 _ **Amethyst: There, I took away all of your voices so I can finally get some peace and quiet.**_

 _ ***Silence***_

 ** _Amethyst: Stop it with your dirty looks!_**

 ** _*Silence*_**

 ** _Amethyst: You know what? I don't care! I can just ignore you all entirely! *Puts on headphones and starts typing*_**

 ** _*Silence*_**

 ** _Amethyst: AHHHH! *Throws headphones off* Fine! *Laptop magic commences*_**

 ** _Entire Academy: MORGAN'S AN ASS BUT WE..._**

 ** _Amethyst: Someone just do the sign off. Now._**

 ** _Tino: Favorite, follow, and review! Thanks for reading everyone! Ok, guys! One two three!  
_**

 ** _Entire Academy: MORGAN'S AN ASS BUT WE STILL NEED TO GET TO CLASS!_**

 ** _Amethyst: Thats it, I'm done. I'm just done._**


	18. Return to base

_**Hope you enjoy!**_

* * *

 ** _Inside Morgan Skyscraper._**

Hyung Soo sprinted frantically through another demolished hallway. Chunks of the ceiling at even come loose and fallen, and Hyung Soo knew they were dangerous.

The korean jumped over another piece of rubble and called out.

"YONG SOO!"

As loudly as he could.

He got no response.

"Damn it." He hissed under his breath as he continued his search.

He froze at the sound of a connection to his ear com and lifted his finger to his ear, activating the call.

"What?" He snapped.

"Where's South, aru? Professor Germania says that he is missing."

Came the worried voice of his older brother over the radio waves connecting them.

"I don't know, there was this sudden wave of Morgan's men that came erupting out of the stairwell and it was all I could do just to hold my own. I lost sight of him and have been searching ever since that explosion."

A worried sigh gusted from Yao's end of the line.

"I'll come up to help you, aru." Yao insisted shortly.

Hyung Soo didn't reply, because he'd come across something that had stopped him short, his breath seemed to vanish from his lungs.

"North?" Yao's voice was not even registered in his mind, a dull buzzing had filled it at the sight.

Hyung Soo felt his hands beginning to tremble as he stared down at the form of his twin, the closest person to him in the world, pinned beneath several slabs of the crumbled ceiling.

One arm was thrown out in front of him, and he was coated in a thin layer of dust that had come from the explosion. His curl was wilted, and though unconscious, his face was twisted in pain.

"Oh, god! Yong Soo!"

Hyung Soo snapped from his stupor and flung himself forward, dropping to his knees next to his brother.

"Yong! Yong, wake up!"

He began to gently shake the black sleeved arm.

Yong Soo was still completely unresponsive, his face was littered with small cuts still leaking blood, and one arm was branching from his shoulder at an odd angle.

Hyung Soo directed his trembling fingers up to his com link.

"T-This is North Korea...I found South."

Yao's voice was instantly on the line, sounding relieved.

"Good, aru. Is he ok?"

Hyung Soo's other hand had frantically slipped beneath the small amount of brown hair hanging down from Yong Soo's head and, after several moments of struggle to find the correct spot, pressed against his neck. Warmth flooded Hyung Soo's fingertips as a weak yet consistent flutter pressed back against the his fingertips.

"He's got a pulse."

Hyung Soo mumbled.

"PULSE!?"

Yao's voice shot up in panic.

"Why do you need to check him for a pulse, aru!? I'll be there any second now, aru! Don't go anywhere!"

Hyung Soo lowered his hand and looked down at his brother in growing concern.

"Onii-san will be here soon...we'll all take care of you...you'll be ok...I promise."

 ** _Hetalia Academy._**

 ** _1:30 AM_**

Yao groaned as he walked out of the infirmary.

"Onii-san, how is he?"

Kiku instantly stepped up. The rest of his siblings had been forced to go and rest, but he had refused to leave the infirmary door.

Yao gave Kiku a look that was tired but relieved.

"He got separated from Hyung Soo and knocked out, aru. His shoulder was dislocated and Professor Ancient Greece had to realign it. Thankfully he was still unconscious for that, aru. He was trapped under some rubble from the explosion but he didn't get any worse then that. He'll be waking up any minute as I'm told. We can all come back and see him in the morning, he'll surely be awake by then."

Yao yawned, rubbing his golden eyes.

Kiku looked up at him worriedly, he was one of the few people his older brother could look down on.

"You don't want him to wake up alone, do you?"

Yao shook his head.

"No, aru. I'll stay with him, you go get some..."

"Onii-san, I was dropped from the main group at the twentieth floor. You were dropped at ten above that. You're more tired then I am, I can stay with Yong Soo, you go rest."

Yao gave Kiku an exasperated look.

"Who's the older brother here, aru?"

"You. That doesn't mean the little brother still can't take care of you. Go get some sleep. Come back in the morning." Kiku said sternly before moving around Yao and towards the infirmary door.

"Kiku."

The japanese stopped and turned to face him.

"I'm happy you're alright, aru. I was worrying the entire time about all of you."

Kiku simply nodded.

"I feel the same for you. Go rest." He repeated before disappearing into the infirmary.

Yao stared after him for a long moment before grumbling.

"Aii-yah, when he did he stop being a ten year old again, aru?"  
"I heard you. That was eight years and two months ago, Onii-san."

"I know that, aru! I know when your birthday is! Shut up!"

 ** _The art gallery._**

Helena gave a sigh, rubbing her eyes as she sat across from a very uncooperative child in the middle of the art gallery. Surrounded by colorful paintings and beautiful statues, the greek woman had thought that the child may loosen up more then if he were in a simple classroom, bedroom, or, perish the thought, cell.

"Your name is Aurel, right?"

Aurel sat on the edge of one of the small platforms used for placing models or examples.

Helena was sitting in a rollable stool she'd pulled from a nearby easel, and the two of them were eye level.

Aurel kicked his feet from where they dangled above the ground and said nothing, but he did give a small nod of confirmation to his name.

"Well I'm Professor Ancient Greece. But my real name is Helena. You can call me that if you'd like."

Aurel looked up at her and the brunette knew that in his thoughts she was the enemy. She'd taken him away from his brother, as far as she knew Valentin was the only person in this boys life that had any sort of positive influence. Surely thoughts were swimming about of the fact that Helena had left her brother in that building, had seized him and carried him against his will all the way to where he was now sitting. An unfamiliar place, with new, strange things happening all around him so suddenly, she did not blame to young romanian for being suspicious and wary of any he did happen to encounter. Especially her. The only person that he would react happily to seeing would most likely be Valentin himself.

Him, and, it appeared, one other, for a few moments later Aurel asked.

"What happened to Nor?"

Helena looked confused for a moment, then she recalled that Nor was a nickname the Nordic's used to refer to Lukas.

"You know, sweetheart, his real name is Lukas."  
Aurel stared at her like she'd just said the end of the world was coming.

"So he lied?"

Helena reacted quickly.

"No, he didn't lie. Here we have two different names. Our normal names, and our..."

She struggled for the right word.

"Secret names." She settled finally.

Aurel appeared to be intrigued.

"Norway is Lukas's secret name, and everyone likes to call him Nor. His secret name is only told to people who he likes, so he must have liked you tell you his secret name. It's an important name he only uses when he's doing a job. You understand, right?"

Aurel seemed to agree with this example, but he still looked at her with concern sparkling in round scarlet eyes.

"What happened to Lukas, then?"

Helena looked uncomfortable.

"Did you see what happened to him?"

She decided to try.

Aurel shook his head.

"The guy in the big black jacket with the funny hair was carrying me upside down. I couldn't see."

 _That must be Emil._

Helena thought.

"Well...he's...he's going to be gone for a while, ok?"

Aurel nodded slowly.

"When will he be back?"

Helena's eyes misted over slightly, but she had to keep face with a child in front of her.

"I don't know, Aurel, I really don't know."

She shook her head to free herself of such thoughts and forced a smile.

"You know it's very late, or very early depending on how you look at it, you must be tired?"

Aurel shook his head.

"I'm not..."

He was betrayed when he stifled a huge yawn, tears welling up in the corners of his eyes as he did so from clear exhaustion. He'd been through a lot that past night.

Professor Ancient Greece crouched down in front of him.

"How about I give you a piggy back ride? You can stay with me for the night."

Aurel sleepily wrapped his arms around the woman's neck and allowed himself to be lifted up from his seat.

As Helena walked, Aurel asked, with his breath tickling her ear.

"Will I get to see big brother soon?"

The former Ancient Academy student hesitated, frowning and biting her lower lip before finally speaking.

"Yes. He should be able to come and see you soon."

Aurel gave a pleased hum at this news.

"I really miss him."

Helena nodded in understanding.

"I'm sure you do, now let's get you somewhere you can rest so you'll have plenty of energy when you go to see you brother again, hmm? Perhaps tomorrow we can get you a new outfit, it looks like that coat of yours has seen better days."

"Okay."

* * *

 ** _Amethyst: Sorry! I got a review suggesting to elaborate more on South Korea, so I figured I'd go back and edit it in. I actually wrote the original without it because I figured you guys would like to get along with the main plot faster. Guess I was wrong!_**

 ** _Francis: So this is what they call a repost, oui?_**

 ** _Amethyst: Oui._**

 ** _Francis: So we get to see more of what happened to Yong Soo, but what happened to moi?  
_**

 ** _Amethyst: You died._**

 ** _Francis: POURQUOI!?_**

 ** _Amethyst: Just kidding. You're fine. You went in and fought with everyone else and made it out with minor injuries._**

 ** _Francis: Phew..._**

 ** _Amethyst: Can you do the sign off now please?_**

 ** _Francis: Oui. Favorite, follow, and review! Merci to you all for reading our stories and we are glad you have enjoyed!_**


	19. Believe

**_Please enjoy the next chapter!_**

* * *

 ** _Headmaster Rome's office._**

Valentin had run this scenario through his head several different times, but why he wasn't sitting in a jail cell, or perhaps in the back of a van on his way to a jail cell, right at that moment never to see his brother or the light of day again was still beyond his comprehension.

He was sitting in that same high backed leather chair in front of Headmaster Rome's desk.

He also could not recall a moment in his life when he was more afraid then right at that exact instant. Exploding buildings, obstacle course arena's, and Professor Gojosen's combat classes included.

Rome was still in his mission gear, still with a gun on his hip and a knife on the opposite side. He had his elbows resting on his desk and each of his fingertips were placed against the opposite hands, with the bridge of his nose just barely resting upon it.

The italian man just sat for nearly a full minute, looking Valentin dead in the eye with those fiery golden orbs as Valentin struggled to look anywhere _but_ at the man who now basically held the teenagers life in his hands.

"Well? I'm waiting for you to explain your actions." angry

Rome's very tone of voice caused Valentin to jump, the way he was speaking was the same way a man might speak to someone who had threatened his very own children. Protective, intense, and absolutely _livid_ , his voice was seething with barely restrained rage.

Valentin, put on the spot, stuttered.

"I-I-I..uh..."

"Why would you risk so much by joining Morgan?"

Valentin looked shamefully at the ground, he didn't even feel like he had the right to be there, in the presence of such a man who'd nearly been murdered because of his brainless scheme.

"I did it because we have nothing back home. Nothing at all. My father left us shortly after Aurel was born. My mother was ill and left us with her sister, our aunt. Our aunt decided that she didn't want to deal with a newborn and a six year old, so she tossed us to the streets. I learned how to beg for food, how the pickpocket, and I started doing things for local crime. Small stuff. I was a kid, no one expected it from me. I never did much, just enough to keep me and brother alive and well enough clothed that we wouldn't freeze to death. I started job hunting the second I got old enough but no one would take me, and by then the crime rings had noticed me and I kept getting hired for more and more jobs. Aurel never knew, of course. I could never let him know how I kept showing up with food, and with a few extra coins every week or two. One of the crime rings I had done work for before apparently passed my name over the ocean to Morgan. He contacted me the day I turned sixteen and offered me passage to the U.S, and a steady income for the foreseeable future."

Valentin gave a wistful sigh, scarlet eyes weighted with the ignorance he'd had on that day mere months ago.

"And a safe place I could continue to raise my little brother. At that point I was happy with making sure we were going to have something to eat the upcoming night. I struck a deal with him, and when I was taken in by the academy Aurel went to stay with him. I promised Aurel I'd be back soon. Guess I lied to everyone."

Rome didn't show the smallest hint of disbelief of Valentin's story, which was what the fanged boy had been fearing. It was equally true he didn't show any pity or surprise at the tale. He just kept eye contact with this appraising look and Valentin was resisting the urge to start fidgeting in his seat.

"So, in other words, you were homeless and took an illegal job you knew was risky because you were trying to provide for your younger brother?"

Valentin's life story, summed up in one sentence by the one and only Romulus Empire.

"Yes, sir." Valentin said.

"I know it probably doesn't count for much, but I want to apologize for all of this, it's all my fault that the school was threatened, and what happened to Lukas..."

Rome leaned back in his seat, his long drawn out stare had broken at last, his golden orbs .

"Lukas. That's right. Lukas." He murmured.

Valentin's eyes fixed down to the floor once more, feeling even more guilt, like a dagger twisting deeper into his heart.

The cold hearted, condescending norwegian he swore he could see more in had gotten a bullet to the chest, all because of Valentin's foolish error.

Rome crossed his arms.

"As for your younger brother, he's still here, I'm pretty sure he's asleep in Professor Ancient Greece's living quarters. He seems like a good kid."

"He is. He's always done nothing but try to help. Even if he's to young or to small for it." Valentin was all to quick to praise his brother, forcing any thoughts of the pale blonde with the signature cross shaped clip from his mind.

 _I may be heading for prison or a one way ticket back where I came from, but Aurel could still have a chance, especially here. Maybe at his age he could even forget all about me, and move on to something better._

"Valentin I do hope you understand just how sever your actions were."

"I do, sir."

"What you did could have destroyed the academy, killed every student and teacher within it, and given Morgan the ability to rebuild and take over our organization. He could have corrupted hundreds of new youths that, thanks to the heroics of other young operatives, will still be brought here and taught to do what is right. I want you to understand just how high the punishment could be for something like this. Prison, or excommunication, or hard labor even."

"I understand."

"Well if you do I hope you'll be smart enough not to pull something this ridiculous again."

"I never would, sir."

 _How could I when I'm being sent to prison for the rest of my life?_

"Alright..."

Rome sighed and put a hand to his head.

 _Here is comes. The verdict. Maybe he'll still let me say goodbye to Aurel..._

"I am going to do something I really was hoping I wouldn't have too do..."

Valentin swallowed, that didn't sound very promising.

"I'm going to trust you."

Valentin's face was priceless, his mouth had dropped open slightly and his scarlet eyes flew open wide in disbelief at the words that had just exited the golden eyed man's mouth.

"I do believe you were never given this when you were originally initiated."

Rome offered Valentin a small black and red card.

Valentin took it and read over it.

A picture of him in his old classroom uniform, an excited smile on his face showing off his fangs.

 _Hetalia Academy student I.D._

 _Name: Valentin Popescu._

 _Nationality: Romanian._

 _Year: First._

 _Room: #23_

Valentin looked back up at Rome with a look of complete shock.

"You're...letting me back in?"

Rome crossed his arms and fixed the brown haired romanian with his most menacing glare he could muster.

Valentin was very throughly intimidated, too.

"Trial basis."

He warned.

"Don't screw this up."

Valentin didn't need any sort of threats presented to him to be able to keep the card in his hand, he already knew how he was going to perform.

With everything he had, as always.

Valentin would keep up with everything, be prepared for everything, and defend the academy as if he was one of their own.

Because Valentin was one of their own. Despite it all, they were still giving him a second chance on life at the most impressive covert operative training academy in the world.

The thought warmed his chest, he wouldn't let them all down a second time.

Of course, before long, another thought came to mind.

"What about Aurel?" He asked. He knew that the entry age could be changed, but only if the entrant was able to keep up with the high level classes. Aurel was pretty bright, but saying he'd be able to do pre-cal and world politics was stretching it, even for a proud older brother like Valentin.

Rome shook his head.

"We won't send him out. He can stay here, I'll arrange for some tutoring for him from the other professors, I myself can give him some lessons as well, that way he can try and catch up to academy standards and join us officially."

"You would do that?"

The brown haired romanians voice was an incredulous whisper.

Rome shook his head at Valentin, leaning back in his high backed chair and crossing his arms, a genuine smile on his face.

"I'll always do the right thing. I know you're not a bad kid, Valentin. I knew it the moment I laid eyes on you. You were just manipulated to do things that contradicted what you knew in your heart was right."

Valentin struggled to swallow what was quickly becoming a lump in his throat.

"Thank you, sir."

Valentin bowed his head.

"I swear I will make sure you never regret this."

Rome gave an approving nod.

"I can certainly believe that."

* * *

 _ **Amethyst: I mean, did you honestly think he was gonna get kicked out and thrown in prison?**_

 ** _Alfred: YES!_**

 ** _Mathias: He's the reason Norgey isn't here with us right now!_**

 ** _Amethyst: Actually, that totally wasn't his fault._**

 ** _Alfred: If never contacted Morgan we wouldn't be in this mess!_**

 ** _Amethyst: Ok, I guess that's true...what do you think?  
_**

 ** _Valentin: Do I have to answer?  
_**

 ** _Amethyst: Yes._**

 ** _Valentin: I really am sorry for what happened and I'll do everything I can to regain the trust of everyone at the academy. I'll take any challenge or punishment for the crimes I committed against the academy in order to take my place amongst them again without suspicion._**

 ** _Amethyst: Alright, Mathias, feel better yet?_**

 ** _Mathias: LUKAS IS GONE!_**

 ** _Amethyst: *Sniffle* I know...we all know...it doesn't help if you yell about it..._**

 ** _Emil: *Silently crying*_**

 ** _Tino: Emil's crying even?_**

 ** _Emil: *Wipes face* Am not! Favorite, follow, and...and...and...and review about my brother! Because he deserves it! Bye!_**


	20. Infirmary

**_Please enjoy the next chapter!_**

* * *

 ** _The next morning._**

Aurel rolled over, not bothering to sit up, blinking a couple of times. He looked around and was met with the greek flag hanging over a desk, several different awards, medals, and trophies lined the coffee colored walls.

The randomly bright red door that must have lead to the bathroom opened and our walked Ancient Greece, her wavy, bouncing light brown hair was tied into a messy bun, and she was wearing a white form fitting shirt with three quarters sleeves that had a slight frill to then, and a pair of bell bottomed dark blue jeans with black slip ons.

Aurel rubbed his eyes as he sat up.

"I thought you only wore red and black, Ms. Helena?"

Helena looked over at the freshly awoken boy and had to admit to herself, he was incredibly adorable, his hair was sticking up in a mess, those two strands that were tied up to either side with elastic bands were sticking up almost like two cats ears. He was still small for his age, but she reminded herself of Valentin's almost six foot stature. If this boy was really related to him, which he must have been for them to have so many similarities, he would shoot up one day.

Helena walked over to the bed and sat on the edge.

"That's just when I'm working, todays a day off, everyone worked so very hard yesterday, we're not having school today to give everyone time to recover."

She explained.

"Oooooh."

Aurel drew out the sound and nodded before hopping down from the edge of the bed and scrambling over to the desk seizing his coat and hat from it and tugging them on.

He managed to do the buttons in the wrong order and Helena chuckled at him, chocolate brown eyes sparkling.

"Need some help?"

Aurel huffed down at his uncooperative coat.

"I can do it." He said confidently.

"Ok, well, I'm going to get my jacket then."

Helena left it at that, moving off towards her walk in closet to get her jacket.

By the time she had returned, Aurel had straightened his coat out and, after Helena paused to grab her purse, they walked out.

"Where are we going?"

Aurel was jumping off of every step, a good nights sleep was all that he had needed in order to recover from his ordeal the night before.

She looked down at the boy with his odd strands of hair pulled up to either side of his head bouncing up and down along with his body.  
Helena knew it didn't take very close inspection to realize that his clothes were on the shabby side.

"I think we should go into the city and get you some new clothes, the fitting rooms here have a pretty big range of sizes, but we're used to catering to young adults, not a boy like you."

"I'm not that small!"

Aurel huffed, jumping again as if to magically cause himself to grow taller.

Helena chuckled as the unlikely duo made a path for the elevator.

"No, you're not, but your smaller then your brother, aren't you?"

"Of course, he is my _big_ brother!" Aurel put emphasis on the 'big' as if to prove his point. This should have been clear as day in his opinion.

"Well most of the other students here are your brothers size, plenty are actually a good deal taller."

"Really?"

Aurel looked surprised, he watched Helena with curiosity.

"Are you bigger then big brother?"

Helena laughed out loud.

"I'm afraid he's taller then me, most of my students are."

They continued on like this for a little while before making it to the elevator.

Before Helena could scan in, the door opened itself, revealing Ivan standing there.

"Eep!"

Aurel dove behind Helena, peeking out and up at the russian teenager.

"Oh, hello." He greeted with a nod, holding the elevator door for them.

"Hello Ivan, you're feeling fine after yesterday's big events?" Helena asked as she entered the elevator with Aurel shuffling along, attempting to keep himself hidden behind the greek.

"Da, it was being the very exciting. Comrade Yao was in danger at one point but I was able to be catching him before he went flying out of the window." Ivan hummed after this, apparently proud of himself for his success in defending his smaller teammate.

"My, my, we had a lot of people flying out windows last night, didn't we? Poor Li broke his arm when he fell from the second story."

"Da, I was hearing of that also. He is being the ok, though. Comrade Yao told me he is the freaking out because he is not being the able to type or be using his phone because his right arm was being broken and that is being his dominant arm. Comrade Yao says he's going into a technology withdraw."

Ivan had a cheery smile painted across his round, childlike features when he gazed down at Aurel, and Aurel shivered at being caught under his gaze.

"Who is being the little one?"

Helena smiled and gestured down to Aurel, who timidly left his hiding place behind the professor.

"This is Aurel, he's Valentin's young brother. Lukas found him in the skyscraper during the attack."

Ivan's violet eyes opened for the first time during the whole conversation as he leaned over slightly to look Aurel in the face.

"Privyet, tiny comrade." He greeted, offering a thickly gloved hand.

Aurel swallowed.

"H-Hi."

Aurel took the offered handshake, only because he knew it was polite. He was beyond relieved when the whirring of the mechanisms lifting the elevator came to a halt.

The elevator door opened again and Ivan nodded to the two as he got out.

"It was being nice to meet you, little one. Be having a nice day, Professor."

"You as well." Helena said before the elevator doors closed, cutting off the view of Ivan walking away into the hall that led to his base, humming a tune with his long black scarf drifting behind him.

"He was HUGE." Aurel cried out.

"Ivan's very tall, he's the tallest student here in the academy. Although Berwald is actually near the exact same height as him, Ivan seems bigger because of that large coat and scarf he always wears."

"There's another guy that big? Wow!" Aurel seemed to have had his mind blown by this.

Helena nodded to confirm her previous statement as the two of them continued on their way towards the parking garage.

 ** _In the underground infirmary._**

Lukas wasn't quite sure what he should have expected when he dragged himself, what felt like hand over hand, out of the blackened pit that was unconsciousness. Of course, the last thing the pale blonde boy had seen was the blue carpets of Morgan's office being stained with his own blood as his entire world turned itself upside-down, his chest and shoulder feeling like someone was holding a flaming torch to his skin.

It was almost as if his eyes didn't want to open just yet, for they put up their own struggle against him. He opened his eyes for a few brief moments and found himself in a semi dark room, lying in a comfortable bed with light streaming in from the crack under the doorframe. He could feel that his chest and left shoulder had been heavily bandaged. The colors, the decoration, even the scent, he recognized it as his safe haven.

Lukas was back home, in the academy where he belonged.

After that his eyelids slid shut again and he leveled off his breathing, feeling to exhausted to even move. After a few moments in blissful ignorance of his situation, the memories of the previous night came back in painful, shattered shards. He'd discovered Valentin's little brother in the halls, they'd confronted Morgan, Morgan and Rome had stood off against each other, but not a single punch was thrown, instead, Morgan had produced a pistol into the equation. He'd aimed at Emil, Rome had moved to protect him, and left Lukas exposed.

 _Oh yeah...I forgot...I got shot._

He heard the door creak open but was still feeling far to stunned to bother opening his eyes. It certainly wasn't the first time he'd had bullets being shot at him, but it definitely was the first time one of them had actually _hit_ him.

"He's still not awake..." A voice breathed.

Lukas recognized it, tight with concern and fraught at the edges with exhaustion.

It was his brother.

 _Thank god Morgan didn't aim for him._

Lukas thought without even realizing the words passing through his mind.

With a force beyond him, the norwegian pried his eyes open.

"Emil?" He asked, wincing when his voice actually cracked.

"Lukas! You're awake!"

Emil instantly dropped down onto his knees next to the bed and Lukas shifted his head to look him in the face.

"I was scared we were gonna lose you."

Lukas wanted to roll his eyes, but still didn't feel much like putting any effort into anything more then necessary.

"Don't be dramatic." He mumbled.

"Dramatic? You got shot."

"So did Ivan."

"Ivan was a totally different story, not to mention he's basically a tank in human form."

"I'm fine."

"You got shot."

"We've already established that. I can feel it, thank you."

With this, Lukas forced another monumental effort into attempting to sit up.

When fiery pain shot out from his injury, he hissed.

"No way!"

Emil put his hand on his brothers chest and pushed him back down onto the bed again, forcing him to lay back.

Lukas dropped tiredly back against the mattress with a heavy moan.

"You've gotta rest, that bullet came dangerously close to your heart."

"How close is dangerously close?"

"It hit just above your collarbone and tore clear through your shoulder, and exited your body just above your shoulder blade. But it didn't mess up your neck, your spine, or really anything. You must be magic, Headmaster Rome was telling us to be prepared for the worse when we got back here."

Lukas gave a hum, an action Emil interpreted to mean he was thinking about what had been said.

"So I almost died, hmm? Good thing Morgan wasn't aiming for you. Or I'd be the one kneeling next to the hospital bed with you in it."

Emil scowled.

"He wouldn't have been able to hit me, Headmaster Rome moved to cover his shot, but he didn't realize how far you were to the opposite side."

"Oh?"

Emil rolled his eyes at the lack of any sort of reaction from his brother.

"Whatever, idiot. I'm just relieved you're awake."

Lukas felt the heavy weight fall on his eyelids again, this time almost irresistible.

After a few moments of battle, Lukas let his eyes droop shut but didn't actually fall asleep.

"How did it go? Have I been out long?" He asked, his voice had settled and wasn't dropping or cracking like it had been he had first awoken.

"Nearly five hours."

"Good. I was afraid it would be five days."

"Or forever." Emil grumbled.

Lukas creaked his eyes open again and slid his violet gaze over to the icelandic. A ghost of a smile came to his lips.

"If I didn't know better I'd say you've been crying." Lukas spoke with a slightly humored tone.

Emil blinked, then frustratedly wiped at his obviously bloodshot, puffy red rimmed eyes.

"Shut up. I was not." He quickly denied the crystal clear truth.

"Whatever you say." Lukas replied in an airy tone, closing his eyes again and resting his head on his pillow, trying to relax so he didn't agitate his already battered, bruised, and now punctured body.

"Anyway, how did it go?" He asked.

Emil shrugged.

"As well as it could have gone. We caught Valentin, we killed Morgan, we got out without any fatalities, plenty of injuries, a few bad ones, but no fatalities."

"Did anyone get shot?" Lukas asked, still with his eyes closed.

"You're the only one who got that pleasure."

"Good."

He then hesitated.

"What happened to Aurel?"

"That kid you found? He's with Professor Ancient Greece, she offered to take care of him after she dealt with all of the injured students."

Lukas was relieved to hear the boy was ok.

"How about Vali?"

Emil let a sigh gust out from between his lips.

"No ones got a clue. He's in Headmaster Rome's office right now. I think he finally realizes he got duped."

Lukas seemed to have a different opinion.

"No, he knew he was going into something dangerous from the start. He knew he was going to regret it later."

Emil scoffed.

"Then why on earth would he do this?"

Lukas forced his eyes open again and looked over at Emil, for a moment imagining the crying child he'd run out of their abusive father's house with in his arms. He recalled whispered soothing words as they sprinted towards his elderly school teachers home. He remembered how scared he'd been, and he feared he'd live to regret what he'd done. But he knew it would be a better life for his brother, no matter what happened to him.

"You wouldn't understand it."

"Hey! No fair! Try me!" Emil demanded.

Lukas just closed his eyes again.

"I know you're not asleep, Lukas! Hey! Lukas!"

* * *

 ** _Amethyst: And Norway's alive!_**

 ** _Mathias: Norgey's ok!_**

 ** _Lukas: Norgey?_**

 ** _Mathias: You should be in bed resting!_**

 ** _Lukas: But I'm fine.  
_**

 ** _Mathias: You got shot._**

 ** _Lukas: I know that. Everybody keeps pointing that out. I know I got shot. I can still feel it. I have a literal hole in my shoulder._**

 ** _Amethyst: Collarbone. Neckline. Thing. I'm not really sure what you're supposed to call that area._**

 ** _Mathias: I don't care, my best friend's alive!_**

 ** _Lukas: And I'm gonna go now._**

 ** _Mathias: I'm coming! *Walk away to other side of still crammed with people sign off room*_**

 ** _Amethyst: Hey! Who's gonna do the sign off! Oh, never mind...who's nearby. Francis, he did it already. Li set off fireworks...oh! Perfect! Hey! You! Come!_**

 ** _Vash: What?_**

 ** _Amethyst: You've never done the sign off!  
_**

 ** _Vash: I'd rather be in the shooting range. There are too many people in here._**

 ** _Amethyst: Just do it._**

 ** _Vash: How fun. *Sigh* All of you readers, favorite, follow, and review. You all like reading about us, I suppose, I mean, it got us this far. So, thanks._**


	21. Ice cream and friendly conversations

_**Hope you enjoy!**_

* * *

 ** _In the city_**

"Thanks for getting me a new coat!"

Aurel exclaimed happily, now sporting a new coat in a brighter shade of the same mossy green as before with double lines of buttons running up the front and a high collar that defended his neck. He had also received a new pair of black pants and short black boots.

Helena had offered to get him a new hat as well, especially when she had seen one similar in the store they'd been in, even in the same mossy green color.

But Aurel had vehemently refused to replace the old green hat he had, no matter how faded the material was.

"Why do you like that old hat so much?" She asked when he'd hugged the thing to his chest, fearing she may attempt to take it away in order to replace it.

"It's a present from big brother. When I was little he got it for me. For no reason. He told me to take good care of it, because it was a lucky hat. He said it was the same reason he wore an old black one. He said that if the luck ever wears out he could get me a new one. The luck still hasn't worn out, so getting a new one would be waste!" Aurel had argued in defense of his battered hat.

As such, the old hat was still perched atop his head, and Aurel seemed to have taken quite a liking to Helena.

She had also taken a strong liking to Aurel as well, now with the gloom dispelled the child was in a good mood, the absence of his older brother entirely forgotten for the time being, what with the distraction of the first new set of clothes he'd gotten in who knew how long, and the fact that Helena had promised a treat before they returned to the academy.

Helena smiled as the two of them entered an ice cream parlor.

Aurel looked confused.

"What is it? It's so colorful!" He exclaimed, standing on his toes and looking through the freezer's window at the tubs of frozen treats.

"Hmm? It's ice cream. You've never had ice cream before?" The woman behind the counter leaned over the edge, looking down at Aurel in surprise.

"Never!" He chirped, looking up at her.

The woman shot Helena a look and she instantly realized that she was assuming some rather unkind things about her.

"What kind do you want, Aurel?" Helena followed up effortlessly, not bothering to look at the other woman wearing a bright pink tee shirt with the ice cream shops logo on it.

"I dunno. What does it taste like?"

"Would you like to try one?" The woman behind the counter asked.

Aurel nodded fervently and the cashier smiled, taking up a tiny spoon and scooping out some chocolate flavor.

Without any previous understanding of the flavor of ice cream, Aurel had a look of pure bliss on his face when he licked the stuff from the spoon.

"Can I have more of that one?" He asked, looking up at Helena with sparkling eyes.

"Sure, make it two, please." Helena placed the order.

After receiving the cup of ice cream, Helena looked down at him.

"Can you go sit down really quick?"

She asked.

"Sure! Thank you!" He thanked the cashier and ran off.

As Helena had expected, when she moved to pay, the woman in the bright tee shirt turned on her.

"How can a kid never have had ice cream before? You his Mom?" She asked, looking incredibly surprised.

Helena shook her head as she handed the woman the tender she owed for the two ice creams.

"I'm taking care of him while his guardian, his older brother, is...dealing with other things. Technically his brother is not his legal guardian, at least, I'm not sure on that front."

She glanced back at Aurel, who was kicking his legs beneath his chair and to far absorbed in his first cup of chocolate ice cream.

"So his brothers some type of messed up?" The cashier guessed, reaching back to retie her apron around her waist.

"No, his brothers very devoted. The entire reason he got into a lot of trouble trying to build a better life for Aurel and himself."

The woman raised an eyebrow, clearly not really believing her, Helena had no reason to bother convincing her.

"Thank you." She didn't bother with anything else, taking her own ice cream, she walked over to where Aurel was sitting.

"Can you eat and walk at the same time?" She asked.

"Mhmm!" Aurel didn't bother with a vocal response, and jumped out of his chair, in an even better mood now, he was practically skipping as he headed out of the door along with Professor Ancient Greece, the bell tinkled through the now empty shop behind him.

 ** _Hetalia Academy._**

Lukas let out a heavy sigh.

"For the last time, Mathias, I don't need you sitting here with me."

Mathias scoffed and crossed his arms.

"I was worried sick about you! Not to mention I wasn't even with you when you got shot! All I knew was that you were severally wounded when I got back to our van and you weren't there. Then Emil was crying when he got in and managed to choke out you'd gotten shot in the chest and Headmaster Rome said to be prepared for the worst! Then Tino got there and he tried to comfort Emil but Emil was having a hard time calming down because he'd seen you getting shot and possibly dying. From there we broke every speed limit on the planet on our way here."

Mathias flopped forward, leaning on the foot of the hospital style bed.

"I already told Emil, don't be so dramatic. I'm fine."

Lukas grumbled, rolling his head to one side so he could squint down at Mathias.

He was still lying flat on his back, and was about ready to go crazy from being confined in the position now that his wound didn't ache so much.

"Mathias?"

"Yeah?"

"Help me sit up."

"You shouldn't screw up your chest any more then it already is."

"It doesn't hurt as badly anymore." Lukas insisted.

"Just help me up."

Mathias sat back and gave Lukas a skeptical look.

"You're gonna turn sitting up into standing up and standing up into walking and walking into running and running into sparring. I know the way you work, Lukas."

"If I promise I'll keep it to just sitting up?" Lukas tried, still staring blunting down at Mathias. With his shoulder wrapped and the inability to use the nearly the entire left side of his upper body, if he tried to sit up on his own, he'd aggravate the bullet wound or just fail miserably.

"I wouldn't believe you." Mathias replied.

"You're annoying."

Mathias chuckled.

"So you've said."

"Mathias, I'm going to go crazy if I have to be stuck in here much longer."

"We've gotten from sitting up to leaving the infirmary pretty quickly, don't' ya think?." Mathias shot back with a sing song voice, further irritating his bedridden friend.

Lukas rolled his eyes.

"So annoying."

"I'll be as annoying as necessary if it means keeping you from reopening that injury."

"I want to sit up."

"And now we're back to sitting up again."

Mathias laughed at the look on Lukas's face.

"You're acting like you hate me!"

"I do."

"No you don't."

"Yes I do."

"No you don't. You love me."

"Not really."

"See! That's better then hate, isn't it?"

When Lukas's death glare only intensified, Mathias laughed even harder.

"Alright, alright, I cave, but only because I don't want you to kick my face in when you're back in full form."

Lukas didn't comment on this, but clearly something along those lines had been dancing through his mind.

Mathias moved around to the opposite side of the bed and gripped Lukas's good arm, carefully helping him prop himself up and throwing an extra pillow behind his head to give him something to rest on.

Lukas leaned back against the pillows, finally upright, and humiliated that he was out of breath.

"I feel pathetic."

"Nah, that's just the bullet wound talking."

"Shut up."

"Maybe I shouldn't have helped you sit up, now you can just insult me to my face." Mathias grinned as he leaned back and kicked his boots up onto the end of Lukas's bed.

"Idiot."

Lukas sighed, then changed his tone as he spoke

"You're ok from the fight, right? We left you alone on the stairwell."

"Hey! I was with old Sve remember? The two of us clocked those goons over the railing like they were bowling pins"

Mathias exclaimed, swinging an overzealous punch at the air around him, which results in him losing his balance and nearly falling out of his chair due to his crossed legs. Lukas watched with an unimpressed expression as Mathias flailed his arms for a moment before regaining his balance, not toppling onto the hard tile floor.

"I'm sure you did." Lukas said sarcastically after watching this display.

"Hey!" Mathias cried indignantly.

"What? I didn't insult you that time."

"Well it sure sounded like an insult!"

"You're too sensitive."

"You're too cruel, Nor!"

"You're annoying, Den."

"Suddenly, I don't feel like I've got to worry about you much anymore..."

* * *

 ** _Mathias: Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey!_**

 ** _Amethyst: What do you want!?_**

 ** _Mathias: A sequel!_**

 ** _Amethyst: ARRGGH! *Puts headphones on and continues typing* Oh... *Lifts headphones* I passed my stupid exams that I've been complaining about with A's in four subjects, thanks for asking, guys._**

 ** _Alfred: That's better then I did._**

 ** _Amethyst: I feel so incredibly smart now, thanks, Alfie._**

 ** _Alfred: You're welcome! Wait...was that sarcastic?  
_**

 ** _Amethyst: *Rolls eyes and puts headphones on again*_**

 ** _Alfred and Mathias: *Poking Amethyst in the arm* Sequel? Sequel? Sequel? Sequel? Sequel? Sequel?_**

 ** _Amethyst: *Removes headphones slowly* Ok, both of you are gonna get your rear ends handed to you in a moment unless you cut it out._**

 ** _Alfred and Mathias: We wanna sequel!_** _ **MORGAN'S AN ASS BUT WE STILL NEED TO GET TO CLASS!**_

 _ **Amethyst: Not that again! I'm done! I'm done! I quit! I'm finished! Through! At the end of the rope here! That's it! *Puts headphones back on and pulls up new page, then starts typing furiously***_

 _ **Alfred and Mathias: What are you doing now?**_

 _ **Amethyst: *Flicks wrist at them* Shoo, shoo, I'm busy writing your lives. You know not to bother me when I'm working on a sequel.**_

 _ **Alfred and Mathias: But we still want a sequel!  
**_

 _ **Amethyst: I just said...**_

 _ **Alfred and Mathias:**_ _ **MORGAN'S AN ASS BUT WE STILL NEED TO GET TO CLASS!**_

 _ **Amethyst: Never mind. You two! Do the sign off! Now!  
**_

 ** _Gilbert: NO! THE AWESOME ME WANTS TO DO IT!_**

 ** _Amethyst: Sheesh, fine, if you want to so badly. *Continues typing, mumbling* Yao chased after them through the familiar black wood floored hallways, dodging around others in the same uniform as he..._**

 ** _Gilbert: Favorite and follow and review! You guys are so totally awesome, you're almost as awesome as the awesome me! Or the awesome Gilbird, because Gilbird's level of awesome is just on such a high level of awesomeness it is almost beyond comprehension. My level of awesome is beyond the outer rim of regular awesomeness, it's just to awesome, even for other awesome people who are awesome but not as awesome as me, like all of you! You're almost as awesome as Gilbird and me, though. Of course you will never be THAT awesome, but you are still Prussia approved! That makes you way more awesome then all of your un-awesome friends! Feel special!_**

 ** _Amethyst: *Lifts headphones and stares at Gilbert*...that wins the award for strangest sign off ever..._**


	22. Gathering in the mess hall

_**Hope you enjoy!**_

* * *

 ** _Dorm room #23._**

Valentin lay flat on his back on his bed, staring up at the ceiling, spread eagle.

"This is insane." Valentin breathed whilst tossing his arms into the air.

Less then a day ago he'd been standing behind Morgan. Now here he was, donning hetalia school colors in the form of his old classroom uniform yet again.

 _How could they just let me back? I can't believe it...just how lucky can one guy get?_

Valentin groaned and sat up, throwing his feet over the edge and standing up.

 _I'm going to go and get beaten up in the mess hall now. I'm just too starving to hide any longer._

He moved from his room walked towards the mess hall.

The building seemed completely deserted, at least, towards the dorms it was, as he neared the mess hall, he heard the din of chatter rising. He walked by several of his former classmates, no wait, he could identify them as his classmates once again.

Vash fixed him with a harsh glare and put an arm around Lilli's shoulder, pulling her around so that he was in between her and the romanian. Michelle was walking up from behind him and Valentin glanced over to her, their eyes locked and Michelle's gaze instantly hardened, she took an exaggerated path as far from him as possible and ran into the mess hall door up front without even a hint of hesitation.

Why would she hesitate? This place was her home, somewhere she felt safe and was trusted to protect.

 _Trusted._

Valentin gritted his teeth.

How _could I have ever played so easily with the meaning of that word?_

The scarlet eyed boy sighed heavily.

Valentin heard another pair of footsteps behind him as he stood near the mess hall door and turned to see a duo he couldn't remember ever officially being introduced to.

Not like now was the best time.

The shorter of the two fixed him with a dangerous glare, crossed his arms, and scoffed.

"God damn, this schools standards just a-took a plunge if they're a-letting this bastard back in. I'd be a-safer back with the damn mafia then with that one in my class."

He commented shamelessly to his taller companion, and Valentin resisted the urge to wince at the painful, sharp words.

"Lovi..." The taller murmured, looking up at Valentin with bright emerald eyes bordering on apologetic.

"Don't Lovi me, tomato bastard, who says he ain't just going to turn around and a-give us another war to fight? You know you don't a-want him here either."

Antonio glanced up at Valentin and let out a sigh.

"Well, I don't really want him back..." He admitted as the two of them headed into the mess hall.

Valentin was still too caught up in the hateful words from Lovino to catch how the Spaniard followed up his comment by saying.

"...but everyone deserves a second chance. Even him. Even you."

To which Lovino grumbled under his breath about how much he hated being used as an example.

"...I pulled a couple of a-shady deals when I was fourteen and my a-Fratello and I were involved in a few armed a-robberies, what's the big a-deal..."

Valentin remained hidden within the hallway, out of sight from the surely cold welcome he was to receive when, or at this point _if_ , he were to step into the mess hall. He peeked into the doorway, not before mustering up every ounce of courage he possibly had in him.

The mess hall was packed, everyone was still in mission uniform, they were talking of how all of them were, friends were holding onto each other in relief that the other was ok, some were boasting, and others were speaking in concern about the injured.

"...Yong Soo's still unconscious..."

"Toris and Ravis are both still out cold..."

"...Feliks sprained his wrist..."

"...did you hear about Romeo? So young..."

"Oh, god, I can't believe what happened to Lukas."

Valentin noted the Micro nations all gathered at a table near the opposite side of the mess, directly next to the only other entrance to the circular room that was the center of the academy.

 _No, that's not right. One of them is missing...oh god, one of them is missing. None of them are even fourteen yet and one of them is missing._

Valentin thought in horror.

Wisteria propped her chin up on her fists on the table, swinging her feet beneath her lazily. Her brown eyes were glassy and far away.

Kugelmugel had his head buried in his arms, resting on the table, Ladonia was halfheartedly picking at a plate of food, Hutt was fiddling with one of the tassels on his shoulder pads that connected to the center of his chest, and Sealand had been playing a video game, but it appeared that his mind had drifted elsewhere, for the game hung in his grasp without any buttons being pressed.

The mood was gloomy, and none attempted to lift it.

That is, at least, until a chipper voice rang out.

"Hey! What's with all the sighing and frowning! It'll give you wrinkles before you turn twenty, ya know!"

The micro nations all whipped around to see Romeo come hopping into the mess hall on crutches, a cast around his ankle.

"Seb!" Wisteria slipped off of her chair and sidestepped hurriedly around the table, seizing the taller boy in a hug around the middle.

"Whoa! Don't go knocking me over when I just got back up again!"

He exclaimed, putting one hand on her back, in a one armed hug, in the process dropping one of his crutches, which clattered to the floor.

Peter was quick to pick it back up.

"We were all worrying about you!"

"Geez, I broke my ankle, not my neck! You're all so silly, getting so down over something like that!"

Seborga insisted.

Kugelmugel was bouncing up and down next to him.

"You're ok! You're ok! We were concerned, for this is the first time that one of us has been injured in battle! I-"

"Thanks, Kaiser, we don't need another love, art, and friendship speech."

Lars quickly shut him down with a single strong pat on the head, Kaiser scrunched his head under the weight of Lars's arm and blinked twice in confusion, but he didn't try to continue whatever it was he was about to go off on a tangent about.

Romeo grinned brightly.

"It means a lot that you all care so much, though."

"Of course we care, you lunkhead!" Wisteria reprimanded him.

"And what were you doing running off by yourself to the fifth floor?"

Romeo's happy expression quickly turned guilty.

"Oh, yeah, about that...well...I mean, it was kind of a huge adrenaline rush from the second we all started running towards the building so I kind of just let my feet carry me and I wound up on the fifth floor."

"You're such an idiot! And look what happened too you, it would have been a lot worse if you hadn't had your gun!"

Romeo winked cheekily.

"But I always have my gun, remember?"

"Including right now?"

Peter was quick to test this, still holding the italians crutch.

Romeo was all to fast to whip his handgun from his waist holster and spin it on one finger.

" _Always_." He repeated firmly.

"Professor Ancient Greece let you take that into the infirmary?"

Romeo shrugged as he holstered his weapon.

"I mean, it's not like she _checked_ me for it. I didn't lie about having it, after all, she just never asked."

THe other micro nations couldn't help but laugh.

Valentin was tuned out of the rest of the micro nations conversations with their reunited ally when he was tapped on the back.

He spun around and came face to face with Tino.

"O-Oh...Tino...um...hey..." Valentin tripped over his words.

He felt rather insulted when Tino started laughing at him, a shadow overtaking his face. First avoided, then ridiculed, then insulted, now downright getting laughed at?

By Tino?

There was only so much one boy could take.

"Wow! And I thought I was rattled after last night!" He giggled as he walked into the mess hall.

Valentin found himself following, and instantly the hairs on the back of his neck stood up, alerting him to the fact that everyones eyes were suddenly on him. The chatter died down, Valentin's entrance was single handedly silencing the room.

Tino smiled up at the romanian who was now the center of attention.

"You know, I felt great after last night! Better then I have in a long time, it was like I was finally free again!"

That lively twinkle in his eyes, Valentin was now realizing just how dead those violet orbs had looked when he'd first arrived.

They now glinted with life, with vitality, and with a new found strength.

"I'm just so happy it's all over now! We can finally just relax for a bit without worry of Morgan coming up and biting us in the rear!"

Tino laughed again.

Valentin was shocked.

"You aren't angry at..." Valentin began his stupefied question.

Before he could finish, though, Tino spoke, cutting him off.

"Oh, and I checked up on Aurel for you! He's doing ok, but he's been really sad ever since we found him. Professor Ancient Greece said she was going to take him out into the city for a little while to try and get his mind off of things. He said he hadn't seen you in a whole month!"

Valentin looked dejectedly to the side, just thinking about his brother being miserable because of something he'd done made him feel a deep pang in his heart.

"I was here, so I couldn't have seen him, even though I really wanted too...I couldn't even call him because I couldn't risk any more phone calls then what was necessary."

Tino gave an understanding hum.

"Well, I'm going to get something to eat, I'm starved!"

Tino headed off for the bar after this.

Valentin was about to move towards the food counter as well, before he was grabbed by the shoulder and roughly spun around.

Gilbert was standing there, and was giving him an unreadable look that was, to Valentin, boring straight into his very soul.

Gilbert held the gaze and Valentin was sure he was about to get beaten up by the german, which was what he had been expecting all along, when Gilbert full out punched in him in the chest. Hard. Valentin felt the air leave his lungs and took an involuntary gasp in a attempt to replenish his oxygen supply.

Valentin stumbled backwards and Gilbert stepped up as if to strike him again.

Valentin didn't even try to defend himself.

Gilbert stopped his sudden advance.

Valentin hesitantly lifted his eyes to his, two pairs of scarlet eyes locked.

Gilbert grinned, putting his hands on his hips.

"Kesesesese~ So that's it, huh? You really are sorry! Finally came to your senses, ja? You're lucky the awesome me is so awesome and forgiving! I ran into your little _bruder_ in the halls on my way here, he's so adorable! Why can't my _bruder_ be like that? Wanna trade?"

Gilbert slapped Valentin on the shoulder and several of the students around him burst into good hearted laughter that rang through the room. Ludwig gave Gilbert a sever look at the trading brothers comment.

Valentin was floored by the sudden re-acceptance. Alfred strode up behind him and smacked him over the head before dragging him into a headlock.

"I thought you were smarter then that, dude! C'mon! Morgan was the manipulating king! A sixteen year old high school student? Please! You didn't stand a chance!"

Valentin didn't know whether to be comforted or insulted by that statement.

"Just, please, please, please, don't go dragging us into another miniature war, alright?" Arthur called from his table, where he was sipping his earl grey.

"Oh come on, black sheep, you know it was going to happen eventually. In a way, Valentin was very helpful in speeding it all along! We should come up with a song! Morgan is de-ad! Morgan is de-ad!" Francis hummed to his makeshift tune.

"You sound like an off tune old record player, frog." Arthur commented snidely before delicately sipping at his tea again.

"I will have you know my singing his just fine!" Francis snapped, crossing his arms and legs and sticking his nose into the air.

Arthur simply snickered at the fact that it had been so easy to get a reaction.

"You are both immature idiots, aru." Yao grumbled, he was resting his head on his folded arms on the table, and he lifted himself up with a large yawn.

"Aii-yah...I'm still exhausted, aru!"

"Well why not go take a nap?"

Arthur suggested the obvious.

Yao sat back in his chair and gave Arthur an appraising glance.

"Because after something like last night, I expect some interesting things to go on, and I don't want to miss it, aru!"

"Don't be over exhausting yourself, Comrade Yao." Ivan warned in a gentle tone of voice.

Yao rolled his eyes at him.

"I am not some five year old, aru! I swear! You all always forget I am the oldest! This is why I say you are so immature, aru!"

"You're not that much older, dude." Alfred commented, finally releasing Valentin, who straightened up and tried to catch his breath.

Yao flailed a sleeve at him.

"I am twenty in two months, aru!"

"And we'll through one hell of a party, too!" Alfred cheered.

"You switch gears incredibly fast, don't you?" Arthur grumbled.

Dragged into the Allies chatter, Valentin seemed oddly accepted, he didn't feel like he was getting stared at, he didn't sense the eyes lingering on him, or the hateful comments. They were still there, he was sure, but the room was no longer so completely against him.

Tino watched from the bar.

"I knew you'd fit in here eventually, Romania."

The finnish breathed, almost to himself, and a small smile lined his face.

* * *

 _ **Amethyst: Freedom! Sweet wonderful beautiful freedom! Exams are over! I can write as much as I want again!**_

 _ **Entire Academy: YAY! That means you have more time to work on our sequel!**_

 _ **Amethyst: And I am completely ok with that! You guys will have another awesome adventure ready to go in no time!**_

 _ **Lovino: Hey, I've a-gotta say something to you!**_

 _ **Amethyst: Go for it.**_

 ** _Lovino: WHY THE HELL A-HAVEN'T I BEEN MENTIONED!?_**

 ** _Amethyst: You were in the last chapter with your usual profanity and spanish boyfriend._**

 ** _Antonio: Lovi~_**

 ** _Lovino: NOT NOW TOMATO BASTARD! When a-do me and Tonio get to be in the stories more!?_**

 ** _Amethyst: Your outta luck for the next story, Yao's getting like 80% of the storyline. I mean, the story followed him and flashes back to the academy once or twice but mostly Yao._**

 ** _Yao: About time, aru! I am the oldest, I deserve some recognition!_**

 ** _Amethyst: Yeah, yeah, yeah, I'm working on it. *Waves hand nonchalantly*_**

 ** _Lovino: But what about..._**

 ** _Amethyst: Lovi, sign off._**

 ** _Lovino: I am a-not down with you I..._**

 ** _Amethyst: SIGN. OFF._**

 ** _Lovino: Fine! Fine! Just a-don't rip my head off! Oy! You readers! Favorite, a-follow, and review! All of you idiota's out there a-reading this crappy thing everyone seems to love keep us alive. So...grazie, I guess. Ciao!_**

 ** _Amethyst: Excuse me while I go beat the tar out of Lovi for calling all my hard work crappy. Bye readers we love you so much even the angry italian!_**


	23. A long due explanation

_**That took a while! Sorry! Hope you enjoy!**_

* * *

 ** _The next morning._**

"Lukas, I swear, you're not my responsibility anymore."

Mathias proclaimed this as he walked alongside Lukas, who had his left arm in a sling to save his wound from any further tearing or reopening. He was wearing his classroom uniform pants, an old black tee shirt Mathias had brought for him, his cross shaped clip in place.

"When was I ever your responsibility?"

Lukas asked, looking skeptically up at Mathias.

"You literally got shot less then 48 hours ago. You should still be in bed!"

"I can't take being restrained that long." Lukas responded as they rounded a corner, heading for the nearest concealed elevator.

"You weren't _restrained_ , you were in bed, resting, for your own good."

Mathias pointed out.

Lukas dismissed the fairly sensible statement.

"No point in my body recovering if my mind never will."

Mathias scrunched up his face.

"Speaking of minds never recovering, Tino's been acting different lately."

Lukas was instantly on edge, expecting the worse.

"What's wrong? Did seeing Morgan again trigger something?"

Mathias snickered, a black gloved hand reaching up to cover his mouth.

"Actually, exactly the opposite, Tino's got that..."

Mathias struggled for the words, groping around with his hands as if he'd be able to pull the correct way of saying his thoughts from thin air.

"That spring in his step back, that sparkle in his eyes, that...that ring to his laughter. He's...he's really back to the way he was over a year ago."

Lukas considered it, and moved to speak his opinion on the subject before being cut off by Mathias.

"He also said that when you get back, he wants to talk to all of us."

Mathias looked down at Lukas.

"He says he feels like he needs to tell us what happened. What happened during that month and a half back in Morgan Skyscraper."

Silence fell between the two of them as they rode the elevator down to the base level.

They arrived on the dorm level and walked into the hallway, only to be met with a surprising sight.

Valentin, on his way up to the mess hall.

Mathias instantly took a step backwards, he'd not yet seen the scarlet eyed romanian since his unmasking as a spy.

After this Mathias seemed to switch gears and instead moved forward, ever so slightly, he was placing himself in between Valentin and Lukas, who had been a few paces behind Mathias out of the elevator.

Lukas observed him calmly from behind his protective teammate, his violet eyes half lidded, the only thing any could have seen in anticipation of the impending crash from the energy spike that had gotten him free of the infirmary that morning.

"Lukas...it's you."

Valentin murmured, scarlet eyes wide.

Lukas raised one eyebrow about a centimeter in surprise.

"What is that supposed to mean?"

Valentin stuttered.

"I...I thought...I thought you were gone." He spat out.

Lukas blinked slowly.

"Well I am not. My question is if you're pleased about that or disappointed."

Valentin was yet again sputtering like a fish out of water.

Lukas moved his to cross his arms, forgetful of the fact that he shouldn't be moving his left shoulder.

He gave a soft hiss in pain, his face scrunching, even with his control over his expression.

Valentin looked genuinely horrified, thinking of how everything, the pain, the bandages visible from under the tee shirt and the sling Lukas's arm was in, was his fault. Be it directly, indirectly, or otherwise, if he and Lukas had never met, Lukas would have never brushed with death.

"So..." Lukas said simply, nodding.

"I see you were readmitted. I'm very surprised."

Valentin instantly felt rejected, a violent pit seemed to open up in his heart.

Perhaps that was the wrong way of saying this, it was more like the all to painful chasm had been opened even wider, it had been there since the last time he'd seen Lukas, the last time he'd seen his brother.

"Lukas, I don't know how too...I'm so sor..."

"If you dare apologize the moment my arm is out of a sling it will be punching you in the face." Lukas warned in the same level tone as before.

Mathias let out a soft 'eep!' and sidestepped away from his fellow nordic.

Valentin swallowed.

"Erm...sorry?"

"Mathias. Remind me to punch him when my chest heals."

Lukas ordered without breaking eye contact.

"Yes, sir!" Mathias said quickly, saluting.

Lukas's violet gaze was burning holes in the brunette from across the hallway.

"Valentin. You recall the last conversation we had that was genial?"

Valentin nodded stiffly, wondering why this was being brought up.

"Well, I've done a bit of thinking on the subject, and I suppose you're right. Something you haven't been too good at recently."

Mathias resisted the urge to snicker at the way Valentin looked absolutely dumbfounded by Lukas's words.

"What I am trying to say is...well...I suppose I don't find you completely unpleasant. You're less annoying then this one."

Lukas tilted his head in Mathias's direction.

"Hey!" Mathias cried, but he was ignored.

"And you're loyal to your cause. Be it for Morgan, for the Academy, or for your brother. When I found him in the skyscraper he was crying. He told me how he was so worried about you. I understand where you come from on that front. You'd do anything for your brother. That is one thing we can agree on. Also..."

Lukas's facial expression did not change in the slightest as he continued on.

"You don't have to be sorry. There is no need for any guilt. I know myself that everyone here will be angry with you. Some will not want to accept you again even after you prove your loyalty. But I am sure that the Academy will accept you. Even if not all the students or teachers do, the Academy, as a whole, will be proud to become the place you call home."

His brisk stride restarted, he pressed onward and Mathias chased after him.

Valentin hadn't gotten so much as one complete, meaningful, sentence into the conversation, he didn't dare look up as Lukas came within arms reach of him.

Lukas paused briefly.

"One more thing."

Valentin's gaze rose, just barely.

One edge of Lukas's mouth twitched upwards ever so slightly in what could have been barely passable as a smile.

"Thank you for saving my life."

Then Lukas left Valentin standing in the middle of the hallway, staring at the spot where he had just been, unable to comprehend that _Lukas Bondevik_ himself had just _thanked_ him for something that had really been all the fanged boy's fault in the first place.

Meanwhile, the nordic duo had arrived at their destination.

"Look who's back!" Mathias called inside the base as he yanked the door open.

"Lukas!" Tino exclaimed happily, running out from behind his workbench and throwing his arms around the norwegian as he stepped over the lip of the door, which was designed something like a door you may see in a ship, or a submarine, a smile on his face.

"I'm so relieved, I was worried about you!"

Lukas awkwardly returned the hug with a one armed shoulder pat, his other arm incapacitated to begin with.

"The word 'worry' has been circulating around a lot these days." Lukas mumbled.

They entered the base and Mathias ordered Lukas to sit down.

Lukas obliged to the command with a roll of his eyes, taking to one side of one of the long couches.

Berwald slid down the ladder rungs and walked over to Lukas, giving a firm pat on the good shoulder.

"Good to see you up." He said.

Lukas nodded.

"Thanks, Sve. Good to see you're alright too."

Berwald nodded back then took up position in one of the armchairs. Emil came down next and, without a word, stationed himself next to his brother, elbowing Mathias out of his way.

"And you said you weren't..." Lukas began teasingly, looking into his brothers still puffy, bloodshot violet eyes.

"Shut up." Emil ordered without missing a beat.

Mathias plopped down on the opposite couch with a drawn out sigh.

"And thus, the Nordic's assemble!" He announced as Tino dropped into the other open armchair.  
Berwald glanced down at Tino, who was fidgeting with his sleeve.

Tino knew that everyone had gathered in the living room without a single vocal reason because they all knew he had wanted to talk to them

 _Can't get cold feet now._

He reminded himself.

"I...I wanted to tell you guys. You didn't really pry into it after it first happened, you sorta just let it go. I appreciate that. But Professor Ancient Egypt and Professor Gojosen both think I need to talk to you about it."  
Tino chanced a look up, all eyes were on him.

"I...well...Morgan...that is..."

He exhaled, gathered his thoughts, and spoke, this time with a dull, ranting tone. He was trying to pour it out as quickly as he could, in as orderly a fashion as possible.

"When I was a prisoner in the skyscraper, Morgan would come down to the cell I was in and interrogate me. You guys know that. It was thanks to one of the interrogation clips that you found out I still alive in the first place. But, he did other things I didn't tell you about. Emil and Lukas heard Morgan say something about training sessions. Training sessions or torture sessions, I can't decide. The way it worked was I would be dragged up to a room on some level of the skyscraper. I never really noticed what floor. The room was empty. White walls, cold tile floors, and a single, normal sized door. Me and Morgan would be in there. Alone. Just us. And he'd tell me. If I could fight my way past him and get out the door, I could go free. But that meant either being fast enough to run around him, strong enough to go through him, or skilled enough to fight him off. None of which I'm any good at."

The Nordic's were now all having a dawning sense of why Tino had suddenly felt so useless as an operative after his stay at the skyscraper.

"It would end the same way every time. I'd never land even a single good hit. Every time I'd been knocked away. Slammed into the walls, thrown to the floor. It always just ended with me collapsing from a mix of pain and exhaustion and Morgan standing over me, not even out of breath. He'd say the same things over and over. If I was faster maybe I could have won. If I was stronger maybe I could have won. But I'm not. I'm not."

Tino lifted his head slowly and gave a weak smile.

"I figured something out when I faced Morgan on our big mission. I'm not strong. I'm not fast. There is no way I could ever beat Morgan in a fight. But...I still beat him. I beat with what I do have. Plus I got to break his jaw bone with what was probably the only hit I've ever managed to land on him. Ever since I was rescued all that time ago I've felt empty. Like I was a danger to everyone. I started trying harder in combat class but I just couldn't do it. I couldn't keep up with the stronger students. I can't keep up with you guys. But I can still do my job to help our team. Maybe I'm not very tall, or very strong, or very fast. But I'm _not_ weak. I know that now, and I'll continue doing the best for our team to succeed, just like we all should, right guys?"

Tino's face split into the purest, most eager smile, his eyes alight, hands fisted, ready to go to work.

"TINO!" Mathias blubbered, he was crying, and he flung himself forward, dragging Tino across the living room into a hug.

"H-Hey! No need to be dramatic!" Tino exclaimed, kicking his feet in the air, he was right about one thing, he certainly wasn't tall as Mathias, and he legs were dangling a good six inches above the ground.

"That's what I've been telling him." Lukas commented.

Emil had now, with due struggle, freed Tino from Mathias, and Berwald clapped a hand on Tino's shoulder just then.

Tino didn't jump or yell out, he just turned and looked up.

Berwald gave a small smile.

"We'll all be trying our best to keep up with your effort."

Tino beamed.

"That's the idea, isn't it! The Nordic's together! We've been three for a while, but we'll be number one soon enough!" Tino declared, pumping a fist in the air.

"Tino you're such a trooper!" Mathias was still openly sobbing.

"I'm not sure what that means, but thanks?" Tino tried with a tilt of the head, looking sheepish.

"Stop being an idiot." Lukas spoke harshly.

"Nor this is such an emotional moment!"

"You don't see anyone else crying, do you?"

"Because three outta four of you guys are practically made of ice!"

"You're annoying Den."

Tino chuckled as Mathias swooned, as if about to collapse from the repeat of that phrase he'd heard literally millions of times over the past three years.

"No big deal, right Sve?" Tino looked over his shoulder at the swedish teenager again.

A grunt of agreement.

"Oh! Oh! Icy's crying! Icy's crying!" Mathias exclaimed.

"Am not, Den! Shut up!" Emil cried out in embarrassment.

"I knew it." Lukas's airy voice proclaimed.

"Fin, make them shut up!"

Tino watched as they all broke down into bickering insults.

He recalled that moment when he'd thought how he'd never felt more alive, lying on the grass outside Morgan Skyscraper, which had a brand new open roof concept, thanks to him.

He took that back.

Right at this moment, with his teammates surrounding him, was even better.

 _Right here._

Tino decided.

 _Is where I belonged._

* * *

 ** _Amethyst: TINO! *Cries*_**

 ** _Tino: What? What did I do now? I'm sorry!_**

 ** _Amethyst: You're such a trooper! *Hugs Tino*_**

 ** _Tino: Mathias said that too and I still don't understand what it means..._**

 ** _Amethyst: It means you're tough and you can make it through anything!_**

 ** _Tino: *Pats author awkwardly* Ok...thanks for the compliment then._**

 ** _Amethyst: I'll make sure you get to be super awesome in the next story!_**

 ** _Gilbert: Did someone say awesome!?_**

 ** _Amethyst: Oh, you're still here._**

 ** _Rome: We are ALL still here! You still haven't opened the door to the sign off room! We're still trapped!_**

 ** _Amethyst: Oh yeah..._**

 ** _Rome: YEAH! So when do we get out of here!?_**

 ** _Amethyst: Next chapter. Which is the last chapter of the story. Then I have no promises for how long the sequel will take, but I promise to you all that it will be here eventually, just don't be holding your breath! Plus I have another really cool idea I'm working on on the side that might turn into my series I write for fun once Call us Hetalia is finished._**

 ** _Tino: What idea?_**

 ** _Amethyst: *Whispers to Tino*_**

 ** _Tino: ...I'm...what? Arthur has wings? And Emil's a cat? What?_**

 ** _Emil: What!?_**

 ** _Arthur: What!?_**

 ** _Amethyst: NO SPOILERS! Emil, sign off!_**

 ** _Emil: Ok, fine. Favorite, follow, review! And what's this about turning me into a cat? Anyway, thank you all for reading, goodbye!_**


	24. A promise I swear to keep

**_Ok, this is the last chapter of this story, I hope you all enjoy it!_**

* * *

 ** _Later that afternoon._**

Everyone was soaking in their last day of break before the dreaded return to the class and training schedule.

Valentin had, to a degree, been treated hospitably, and he was marveling at his luck. It was a little while after 4 PM, and a good six hours after his run in with Lukas, that he realized he'd taken on the same famous habit as aforementioned blonde, pacing the back halls of the academy in order to give himself room to think.

His nine year old brother was what filled his thoughts the most.

 _I wonder if Headmaster changed his mind...or maybe this is just some form of punishment? What if he decides to use Aurel as leverage to make sure I behave? I tackled Morgan, I betrayed him, I could never go back there. Not to mention Morgan's dead anyway, so it doesn't really change the fact that the academy here is my only chance. I don't want this to turn into Aurel being used as just a bargaining chip again. He's my little brother, all I want is for him to be happy, be it here, or anywhere else in the world. I just don't know what I'll do without him..._

Valentin let his mind drift down these lanes for the next few minutes as he found himself making his way into the open arch hallway, flooded with golden sunlight.

 _This is the last place I saw Lukas before the big night...at least...the last time I saw Lukas, my friend. Seeing Lukas, my enemy. Lukas, my captor. Lukas, my attacker. Lukas, injured with his feelings unclear. Those were all very different from that conversation we had here in this hall._

Valentin sighed and looked out one of the open arches, pausing to take in the lush courtyard, with a single massive tree for shade, it had a picnic table underneath it and a wide grassy lawn surrounded by flower bushes and smaller trees.

He didn't hear what was going on just beyond his vision.

At the end of the hall, just around the corner, was Aurel, with Helena, they'd been walking back towards the mess hall with intent of getting a snack when Aurel had frozen in place, then dodged back behind the corner like a frightened rabbit darting into it's burrow for cover.

"It's big brother." He whispered to Helena.

Helena knelt down to be at eye level with Aurel.

"Aren't you happy to see him?"

Aurel looked conflicted.

"Dunno..." He finally mumbled.

Helena was, at once, deeply concerned.

 _All this time I've been led to believe that his brother is everything in his life. The only semblance to a guardian that he has ever known._

Helena hid all these concerned wonderings with grace, and spoke in the same hushed tone, still knowing Valentin was still to much lost in his own thoughts to really notice them.

"Why don't you know? You asked just yesterday if you were going to get to see him soon."  
Aurel nodded softly, looking crestfallen.

"Didn't he do bad things? For me?"

Helena sighed, then gave a small affirming,

"Yes."

For she could not lie.

Aurel seemed even more scared by this.

"Then maybe if I wasn't there, big brother wouldn't do bad things anymore."

Helena felt a smile come honestly to her face.

"Aurel, look at me."

The romanian boy dutifully lifted his head, his scarlet eyes matching Helena's dark chocolate brown ones.

"Valentin did that thing because he thought it would help you. He was quite badly mistaken. But, it would hurt Valentin even more if you stayed away from him. Do you know why?"

Aurel shook his head slowly.

"How much do you love your big brother?"

"More then anything."

The reply was faster then a heartbeat.

Helena tilted her head to one side slightly.

"Well, then Valentin loves _you_ ten times more."

For the young boy, tears were welling up in the corners of his eyes, and his bottom lip crumpled.

He turned from the corner and looked out at the one with whom he shared blood, a name, and so many different features.

"BIG BROTHER!"

Aurel shouted out as he sprinted around the corner, tears flying out behind him. He reached out in front of him and nearly managed to trip as he ran from the end of the hall towards the older Popescu.

Valentin nearly jumped out of his skin at the voice of the one that had just been the center of the half formed worries chasing each other around in his brain.

"A-Aurel?" He turned with eyes wide, before a floodgate of warm, comforting relief washed into him, watching the nine year old he cared so deeply for sprinting toward him with all his speed.

Valentin dropped down onto his knees and spread out his arms, a look that transcended joy on his face, just in time to get tackled and nearly knocked over by his younger brother.

"I was so worried about you!" Valentin exclaimed, one hand on the back of his brothers head, the other around the younger, holding him close, savoring the feeling of knowing the most important person in the world to him was in his arms.

Valentin was consoled by the feeling of knowing he could protect his little brother once again.

"Big brother!"

Aurel leaned backwards so he could look Valentin the face.

"You promised you'd come back!" He exclaimed.

Valentin took in the tears rolling down the round, youthful face.

"I was worrying about you just as much as you were worrying about me!" Aurel cried out, hoping to show how obvious this should had been as he threw his arms around Valentin's neck, clinging to him.

Valentin nodded, rubbing soothing circles into the boys back.

"You're right, I'm sorry you had to worry about me."  
"I thought you weren't gonna come back..." Aurel sniffled.

Valentin felt unparalleled guilt, only able to guess at how it must have felt to feel as though you'd been abandoned by the only person you could ever remember loving you.

"Aurel, I'll always come back for you, ok? If it takes me a day, a week, a month, or a year. I'll always make it back." Valentin insisted in a whisper as he stroked his brothers hair.

Aurel had buried his face in Valentin's shoulder, and remained there for the next minute or so, Valentin was all to glad to be able to hold him while he cried out all the built up tormenting concern that had plagued him for weeks now.

"Can you promise me something?" Aurel asked into Valentin's, now throughly soaked with tears, jacket.

"Anything." Valentin replied.

"Don't do something so dangerous for me every again. I don't care if we have a big house or a little house or no house at all. If we've got a lot of food or no food. I don't know what I'd do if you never came back, big brother. I'd probably die."

Valentin knew Aurel had years with which to mature and become stronger, to grow into a independent individual that didn't need anyone to lean on.

But at that moment, Aurel, as a child, needed that kind of assurance.

"I won't. I promise I won't ever do anything like that again."

Valentin meant it.

He meant every single word.

 ** _The End._**

* * *

 _ **Amethyst: Completed!**_

 ** _Alfred: So are we getting a sequel or not!?_**

 ** _Amethyst: Eventually. I have some other stuff to work on and this ever looming threat called school is forever blocking my path, so it might take a while._**

 ** _Yao: Are you going to kill me in this, aru?_**

 ** _Amethyst: Do you want to spoil the whole thing?_**

 ** _Yao: SO I DIE!?_**

 ** _Amethyst: I'm not telling._**

 ** _Alfred: Can we just...please...please...please...get out of this ridiculous room now?_**

 ** _Entire academy: PLEASE!?_**

 ** _Amethyst: Yeah, yeah, just do the last thing._**

 ** _Entire Academy: THANK YOU FOR READING AND SUPPORTING OUR SERIES!_**

 ** _Amethyst: Ok, you're free to go. *Laptop magic commences*_**

 ** _*Door to sign off room opens to reveal beautiful freedom beyond*_**

 ** _Amethyst: See you guys in the next story! *Waves*_**

 ** _Entire Academy: BYE! *Runs out the door*_**

 ** _Amethyst: *All alone* Well...there they go. *Pulls out headphones and sits down in the middle of the now empty sign off room as the door closes* And I'm back to the drawing board...lets see...where should I start?_**


	25. Call me Immortal

**_Valentin: *Looks up at story* I can't believe I was such an idiot!  
_**

 ** _Aurel: It's okay, big brother!_**

 ** _Amethyst: Hi guys! Welcome back to your debut story!_**

 ** _Valentin: I'd honestly rather forget this entire fiasco._**

 ** _Amethyst: Ok, well, you don't have to stay long._**

 ** _Aurel: Why are we here, Ms. Amethyst?_**

 ** _Amethyst: *Small cuteness overload* You're here to help me announce the next story in the Call us Hetalia series!  
_**

 ** _Yao: AII-YAH! There's another one, aru? What, is it just going to be us going to class and arguing with each other? Or just more of Professor Gojosen throwing students into nearby walls? Or Headmaster Rome getting smacking around by Professor Britannia for forgetting to grade our history papers again? Sounds exciting, especially compared to kidnap, exposure, hostage situations, and infiltrating spies! Morgan is dead, aru! Game over!_**

 ** _Amethyst: ..._**

 ** _Valentin: He IS dead, right?_**

 ** _Amethyst: ..._**

 ** _Yao: Amethyst, aru?_**

 ** _Amethyst: ..._**

 ** _Yao: Well, we're all screwed, aru! *Throws overly long sleeves into the air*_**

 ** _Amethyst: Heh, heh, heh...sorry! You think I can toss away the main antagonist that quickly?_**

 ** _Yao: It's been four stories, aru!_**

 ** _Amethyst: Exactly. Way to quick for me._**

 ** _Valentin: Aurel, I want you to stay very close to me. And don't go with anyone suspicious. Especially if they are wearing blue._**

 ** _Aurel: Ok! *Grabs Valentin's hand*_**

 ** _Amethyst: Hit it Emil!_**

 ** _Emil: *Drumroll*_**

 ** _Amethyst: Pleased to introduced Call me...erm, what was it?_**

 ** _Yao: How should I know, aru?_**

 ** _Amethyst: *Snapping fingers* It had something to do with graduating..._**

 ** _Valentin: Who's graduating?_**

 ** _Amethyst: I REMEMBER! Emil, try it again!_**

 ** _Emil: *Sigh* Fine, I don't even know why I have to be here, though. Plenty of people can play the drums. *Drumroll again*_**

 ** _Amethyst: Call me Immortal!_**

 ** _Yao: What does that have to do with graduating?_**

 ** _Amethyst: It was the first word that came into my head!_**

 ** _Yao: What does immortality have to do with graduation?_**

 ** _Amethyst: Good point. My mind works in strange ways._**

 ** _Yao: Sure does, you invented this madhouse of a school we're all trapped in, after all, aru._**

 ** _Amethyst: *Sticks tongue out* You'll be gone soon anyway!_**

 ** _Yao: What are you going to do to me, aru!?_**

 ** _Amethyst: The worst possible thing I could. Graduate you._**

 ** _Yao: I graduate?_**

 ** _Amethyst: Yup. With halfway decent grades and outstanding physical performance._**

 ** _Yao: *Commences victory celebration* I can move out and be free from those idiots in that stupid six man base, aru!_**

 ** _Amethyst: Calm down, it gets worse._**

 ** _Yao: How can it get worse? If by worse you mean better, aru?_**

 ** _Amethyst: And...that's time! Aurel!_**

 ** _Aurel: *Jumping up and down* Go and read the 5th installment of the Call us Hetalia series! Call me Immortal! It's about Mr. Yao!_**

 ** _Yao: I am not that old, do not call Mr. Yao. Just call me Yao._**

 ** _Aurel: Ok! Bye reader people! *Waves*_**

 ** _Yao: Pray for my survival, readers._**

 ** _Amethyst: So thats Call me Magic, folks! Thanks for reading, and go read Call me Immortal! Do it! It's on the site right now! That what this whole mini chat update thingy means! Go read it! What are you still doing reading about me talking? Go! Now! Run! Scurry! Scamper! Crawl! Dash! Sprint! Tip toe! Skitter! Skip! Cartwheel! What ever it is you do! You do what you do! Hurry! Peace! Love! Hetalia! Farewell!_**


End file.
